Heading outside of Bowling Green, you might find yourself passing a small country road named Old Richardsville Road. Continuing down this road for a few minutes, you’ll come to an old rusted one lane bridge. As you cross, the old wooden beams creak under the weight of your car. The bridge, other than seeming slightly sketchy, is pretty unassuming.
However, years ago, a woman supposedly jumped to her death off the side of the bridge after discovering that she was pregnant out of wedlock. Many believe she never left the bridge.
The first thing we tried once we got to the bridge was pulling to the middle and putting our vehicle in neutral, taking our foot off the break, and waiting for our car to roll. We all fell silent as the car quietly sat on the bridge.
Then, the least likely thing you would expect happened, absolutely nothing. We sat on the bridge for a few minutes, waiting for the car to move, and it never did. “oh well,” we decided we put the car back in drive and continued down the bridge, and found a spot to park.
The unassuming bridge was just that, unassuming. We set about taking pictures of the bridge and just generally exploring. The view was gorgeous, if you’re a sucker for sunsets, but seriously, who isn’t. We set up our recorders and left the area.
As we walked across the bridge we noticed the strain of the cross beams even under our weight. But, nothing out of the ordinary. At this point in our hunt, I would venture to say we were all pretty comfortable on the bridge, sure we were a little freaked out by the old planks, but no one got any uneasy feelings.
On the other side of the bridge, we found a small path that led underneath the bridge. Trespassing? Maybe. Irresistible? Absolutely. After climbing down a sharp hill right off the shoulder of the road, my friend Weston and I followed a short path that was littered with car parts. Bumpers, tires, headlights, you name it.
Once we got through the mini junkyard, we emerged under the bridge. Other than that creepy feeling you get when you may or may not have trespassed on a homeless person’s homestead, still nothing. Of the tons and tons of pictures we took, none showed anything interesting.
After spending a few minutes under the bridge, we found a rough set of stairs that were much easier to transverse that the hill we had to climb down. We met up with our other friend who stayed on the bridge alone, and she confirmed our suspicion, she hadn’t felt anything at all being left alone.
Now having spent several hours at the bridge, we decided to call it quits. We grabbed the recorders and loaded back up. As we began to cross the bridge in the opposite direction we figured why not try the neutral thing once again.
We popped the car into neutral, let off the break, and waited. I wish I could tell you that suddenly the car jolted forward at an uneven pace, that you could hear the panting of someone trying to save us from the same fate that befell them that once we crossed the bridge and got out of the vehicle, it was littered with handprints left in the dirt. But, none of that happened, we just sat there, motionless, on the bridge, and nothing happened.
While I can’t say definitively whether or not there is a spirit that still haunts the Old Richardsville Road Bridge, I can say that I did not personally experience anything while I was there. However, every human is an individual and will have their own experience and maybe we just came on an off day for the spirits. As always, I would love to return to the bridge sometime even if it is just for another sunset.
