{"id":1339,"slug":"csx-coosa-river-railroad-bridge-gadsden-alabama","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Between the Memorial and Meighan road bridges, a CSX railroad bridge carries freight across the Coosa River at Gadsden. The current span went up in 1909, replacing an 1880s trestle that had carried trains, pedestrians, and private wagons alike until the Memorial Bridge opened in 1927 and left the crossing to the railroad. It is active, restricted track — trespassing is the ordinary hazard here, not the paranormal kind."]},{"heading":"What the trestle saw","paragraphs":["The documented violence at this crossing predates the present bridge. In 1906, after a white woman was raped and murdered in the city, a mob gathered outside the Gadsden jail demanding the Black suspects. They seized one, Bunk Richardson, dragged him to the original railroad trestle, and hanged him there. Photographers recorded the scene; the images survive as the record of a lynching the town has had a century to carry.","The haunting reports came attached to the replacement. Local historian Mike Goodson noted that after the 1909 construction — during which one death occurred — people crossing at night described an unusual ghostly light near the middle of the bridge and disembodied sobbing. Whether the reports belonged to the construction dead or to Richardson is a question the tellings have answered both ways; the Southern Spirit Guide suggests the light and the crying may be his."]},{"heading":"The file's reading","paragraphs":["This is a dossier where the verified history is heavier than the legend laid over it: a mob murder on a public trestle, photographed, filed, and absorbed into ghost lore within a generation. The light and the sobbing stay in the claim column. The name stays in the record."]}],"name":"CSX Coosa River Railroad Bridge","aliases":[],"type":"RAILROAD_BRIDGE","type_label":"Railroad Bridge","cats":["HAUNTED_PLACE"],"groups":["hauntings","roads"],"desc":"Railroad bridge in Gadsden; research record.","full_desc":"A railroad bridge in Gadsden, Alabama, CSX Coosa River Railroad Bridge is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Railroad bridge in Gadsden; research record. It sits in the archive under haunted places. The dossier holds 1 reported claim and 1 legend, every one filed as account rather than fact. Access is restricted, and the file says so plainly.","address":null,"city":"Gadsden","county":"Etowah County","state":"Alabama","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":34.006597,"lon":-86.016078,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"UNKNOWN","access":"RESTRICTED","access_notes":"Railroad-owned bridge; the source explicitly warns against trespassing.","ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"Discovery pass. Precise location, historical chronology and current visitor conditions require independent enrichment. Confidence concerns provenance only.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"LOW","score":49.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":601,"type":"HAUNTING","description":"Southern Spirit Guide recounts ghostly light and sobbing. The reports at CSX Coosa River Railroad Bridge are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. The account has a collector's pedigree — written down as legend, which is the most honest status it can hold. The account appears in 'Alabama Hauntings — County by County, Part III'. The haunting is unproven and unfired: it keeps showing up for work anyway.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.5,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Alabama Hauntings — County by County, Part III","url":"https://www.southernspiritguide.org/alabama-hauntings-county-by-county-part-iii/","publisher":"Southern Spirit Guide","type":"BLOG","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Southern Spirit Guide recounts ghostly light and sobbing. CSX Coosa River Railroad Bridge's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. 'Alabama Hauntings — County by County, Part III' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. The account appears in 'Alabama Hauntings — County by County, Part III'. It's the version the place will be remembered by, whether or not it's the true one.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Alabama Hauntings — County by County, Part III","url":"https://www.southernspiritguide.org/alabama-hauntings-county-by-county-part-iii/","publisher":"Southern Spirit Guide","type":"BLOG","authority":4}}],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Access is restricted; check with the managing agency or landowner before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Alabama Hauntings — County by County, Part III","url":"https://www.southernspiritguide.org/alabama-hauntings-county-by-county-part-iii/","publisher":"Southern Spirit Guide","type":"BLOG","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":1,"history":0,"legends":1,"entities":0,"sources":1}}