The Hanging Ghosts of Jericho Covered Bridge
- Wendy Moxley Roe
- Aug 28
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 29
Jericho Covered Bridge is one of six covered bridges still standing in Maryland and one of three of those open to traffic. Built in 1865 across Little Gunpowder falls, it crosses the border of Harford and Baltimore County Maryland. The original structure cost $3,125, which is the equivalent of $61,630.56 today. The bridge runs 88 feet across the river and is 14.7 feet wide. In 1978 it was added to the National Registration of Historical Places and has had a few restorations over the years in 1937, 1982 and 2015.
In December 1980, the bridge was closed for over two years after engineers determined that its wooden flooring, originally designed to support the weight of a horse and buggy, was struggling to handle modern motor vehicle traffic. The project, which cost $280,000, reinforced the bridge with steel beams and the bridge reopened on July 7, 1983.
The 2015 restoration began in the spring of that year. In June they literally rolled the entire 90 ft structure onto one of the riverbanks to do the extensive repairs it desperately needed. Over approximately one year they cleaned and painted the support beams, made necessary updates and repairs to the arches and trusses, replaced the bridge decking and installed a surveillance system, overhead protection system, and new guard rails. When they were finished, they rolled it back into place.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held in April of 2016 to reopen the beautiful bridge. In the end the project cost 1.8 million dollars. The majority of funding for both the 1982 and 2015 restorations came from a federally funded grant program for historic covered bridges with 10% of the cost also contributed each by both Baltimore and Harford Counties.
I can clearly remember visiting this location as a middle schooler on a field trip and being thoroughly impressed that I could walk across the bridge to another place! That to me was Magical!
I also remember ghost stories being told that day of people having been hung there and their ghosts seen by drivers. As an adult I've read about some of the experiences and of course had to go visit again!
One of the most reported strange occurrences is stalling cars. All of us that like to visit haunted locations know the struggle of equipment battery drainage. It is a common occurrence and is apparently so strong at Jericho that it can render a car lifeless as it crosses the bridge. After your car stalls, you get a really creepy uneasy feeling as strange noises begin to reverberate around you. Some say a ghostly figure appears at the end of the bridge, just an eerie silhouette in the moonlight. Once you have passed over the bridge, some having to push the vehicle, the car will start again as if nothing was wrong.
The most well-known local legend tied to Jericho claims that the rafters of the bridge were used as makeshift gallows to hang run-away slaves and/or captured Civil War soldiers. However, the bridge was actually constructed just after the end of Civil War and two years after slavery had been abolished making this unlikely. Like any legend, minor details often get distorted over time, altering the story and making it hard to separate facts from fiction or locate reliable documentation. Regardless of its truth, the story endures.
Another story tells of a local young couple who fell in love but could not be together because of a family feud. They met at the bridge late one night determined to run away and elope. They meet with a tragic end on the bridge. A second version of the story tells that they met at the bridge and hung themselves because there was no way for them to be together. In both stories the couple is attached to the bridge because of intense way they died.
Although no concrete evidence exists to verify either story, numerous people have claimed to see ghostly figures hanging from the bridge's rafters, with some even reporting the sight of dangling feet as they drive through. An anonymous young man shared this personal story
online:
"I went onto this bridge with a friend who could see and sense spirits. When we stopped on the bridge he started choking and said I needed to get him out of there, that he felt a 13-loop rope around his neck. when we got to a lighted area rope burns were seen around his neck. I went back there about 3 weeks ago, and they have since then placed cameras on each side of the bridge with signs to not loiter or stop on the bridge."
Over the years, many other bizarre stories have surfaced. Ghostly women spotted walking along the bridge, one wearing Victorian clothing, one is said to have a severely burnt face and yet another carrying a spray of flowers. A strange monkey-like creature with a long tail bridge and a red eyed demon that eats people intent on causing trouble at the bridge! Some have reported finding unexplained handprints on their car exterior and windows after crossing the old bridge.
Yet another tragic story speaks of a woman who threw her baby from the bridge to its death and then hung herself from the bridge's rafters to join him. Visitors have claimed to hear the mother singing a lullaby or the sound of a baby crying.
A local unnamed woman gave this description of her experience during a visit:
“I could hear it clear as day except I was still never able to make out the words. My impression was that it sounded just like a lullaby, the tune seemed so familiar, but I was never able to quite place it.”
The bridge even has its own Bloody Mary-style urban myth. The story goes that if you drive onto the bridge, stop your car in the middle, and give a sharp honk of your horn, a ghostly figure hanging from the rafters by a rope will appear behind your car when you look in the rearview mirror! There are several versions of this lore, and I came across a personal story from a local man who grew up near the bridge and decided to test it one night with his high school friends:
“In high school, a friend and two girls drove up to the covered bridge one summer night. We thought it would be fun to “scare” the girls.
I must have been about 15 or 16 at the time, and my friend Steve and I were hanging out with two older girls that night. It was a decent night in Baltimore during the summer, with about 78 degrees and low humidity.
As we approached the bridge, I asked Stacy to turn off her headlights once we were halfway there. It was a moonlit night, so we could see the other end of the 88-foot-long covered bridge.
We slowly entered the old, wooden structure; our windows were down, so we could hear the wooden floorboards creak as we slowly crept along. Halfway through, I asked Stacy to turn her headlights back on. Her friend Tina was in the back with Steve and was not enjoying our night of fright.
So, Stacy turned the headlights on and….. there was nothing to see in front of us. But I told everyone what we were supposed to see was not in front of us but behind us.
I told everyone not to turn around yet. Instead, I told Stacy to push the brakes so we could see behind the car. I tilted the rearview mirror, so Tina and Steve could see what was behind us.
Stacy and I used the mirrors on our visors. I didn’t see anything, neither Steve nor Tina; however, Stacy floored it through the remainder of the bridge and didn’t look back.
We were yelling at Stacy to slow down because we were driving through a residential neighborhood with many winding roads, and we didn’t want to end up in someone’s living room.
Eventually, we returned to the main road, and Stacy pulled into a convenience store. She asked me to drive her car because she couldn’t. I switched places with her, but I wondered what happened back there before we left.
She told me when she looked in her mirror, she saw a figure of a woman wearing a white dress carrying something in her hands. She said she saw the ghostly figure at the point of the bridge we entered.
We drove the rest of the way in silence; none of us talked about it ever again.”
Once again, there is no concrete evidence to verify any these stories, yet the numerous personal accounts continue to surface even to this day! If you have visited this location and have a personal experience, I would love to hear them!! I hope to get out there to "investigate" a bit further at some point!!! I'll update if and when I do!
Thanks for reading!!!
Wendy
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