JACKSON COUNTY, Fla. – Deep in the woods off County Route 162 in Jackson County is a defunct iron-frame bridge that’s the center of paranormal intrigue.
This relic — called the “Bellamy Bridge” — is considered by many to be “Florida’s Most Haunted Bridge.”
According to Visit Jackson County, it was built in 1914 on the site of a previous wooden bridge, which was constructed even earlier in 1840. That makes the Bellamy Bridge the oldest of its kind in Florida.
And while age trends with the uncanny, how exactly did the bridge get its haunted moniker?
THE GHOST STORY
According to historian Dale Cox, the legend of the Bellamy Bridge Ghost dates back over a century. There are several versions of the ghost story, but they all revolve around a beautiful young woman named Elizabeth Bellamy.
The legends say that Bellamy was the bride of a well-known politician in the area, Dr. Samuel C. Bellamy.
Both were in love and had planned to get married at the mansion Dr. Bellamy had built for them in the nearby town of Marianna. The ceremony was luxurious, and the couple was wed in a rose garden, each vowing to love the other forever.
But tragedy struck just a few short hours later, Cox explains.
“Elizabeth, they say, was either dancing with her new husband or resting upstairs in a comfortable chair when her long gown suddenly came in contact with either a candle or an open fireplace,” Cox writes. “The rich material burst into flames, and before her husband or any of their guests could react, Elizabeth ran screaming from the house.”
Severely marred by the flames and in extreme pain, Elizabeth Bellamy died just a few days later. Her body was taken to the plantation of her new brother-in-law, where it was buried near the Chipola River — right by where the Bellamy Bridge now stands.
Dr. Bellamy then spent the next 15 years mourning her death before taking his own life, though that meant he couldn’t be buried on the consecrated ground where his wife’s body was laid to rest.
As such, he was reportedly interred miles away in Chattahoochee.
However, the two had vowed to love each other forever, and so Elizabeth’s spirit began to stalk the swamps around Bellamy Bridge in search of her beloved.
At least, that’s how the story goes. That’s not how it ends, though.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?
Cox explains that the story is a combination of fact and fiction.
He says Dr. Samuel Bellamy and Elizabeth Bellamy were indeed real people, and the Bellamy family had moved to Florida from North Carolina while the state was still being settled.
But instead of being burned to death, Elizabeth Bellamy had likely been killed by an illness like malaria or yellow fever, which were common in the territory at that time. She passed away in 1837 at 18 years old and was buried in a small grove near where Bellamy Bridge now stands.
Meanwhile, Cox states that the more romanticized elements of the ghost story stem from a famous 19th-century novel by Caroline Hentz, titled “Marcus Warland or the Long Moss Spring.”
Around the time of publishing, Hentz asserted that the book was based on real events.
While Hentz spent several of her last years in Marianna, she wrote the book while living in Georgia, and historical records indicate that the “burning bride” incident actually took place up there.
“This, of course, neither proves nor disproves that there is a ghost at Bellamy Bridge,” Cox adds. “The legend is older than the first claims that Elizabeth Bellamy died in a tragic fire. The earliest incarnations of the story hold simply that the area around Bellamy Bridge is haunted by the restless spirit of Elizabeth as she searches for her long-lost husband.”
According to county officials, the ghost — whether Elizabeth or not — has been reported in the guise of “unusual blue-and-white lights, a misty shadow, and even the faint form of a young woman dressed in white.”
WHERE CAN I FIND THE BRIDGE?
It might not be possible to disprove the ghost story entirely, but finding the source is a different matter.
The abandoned Bellamy Bridge can be explored using a half-mile nature trail that breaks from the highway.
The trail is open during daylight hours daily, and it’s available to the public at no charge, so visitors can go out there to test the myths themselves.
In the meantime, there are plenty of other trails across the state that lead to mysterious abandoned ruins. For a list of those sites, click here.
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