The Ghost of Bellamy Bridge

Bellamy Bridge

Jackson County is in rural northwest Florida, not far from my own neck of the woods. There, just west of the Chipola River lies Bellamy Bridge, also known as Florida’s Most Haunted Bridge. It's one of the state’s ten oldest, constructed in 1914, on the site of a previous wooden bridge which dated back to 1840. 

Its most famous resident specter is said to be that of Elizabeth Jane Bellamy, the scion of a wealthy planter family, who died in 1837. Though some stories have claimed that she accidentally set her dress on fire on her wedding day and threw herself into the river, this is not true. Bellamy actually died from malaria, almost certainly contracted from the uncontrolled mosquitoes which inhabited North Florida swamplands. She was buried near the future Bellamy Bridge, in the cemetery at her sister's plantation, Terre Bonne.  

Elizabeth Bellamy

Some legends hold that Bellamy promised on her deathbed to love her husband, Samuel, forever. Samuel would remain in mourning for the next 15 years, before taking his own life three days after Christmas. He did this by reportedly slitting his own throat with a straight razor. Due to his suicide, he could not be buried next to Elizabeth, and was instead buried in Chattahoochee, in the next county. Samuel’s grave has since been lost to time. 

Legend has it that Elizabeth’s spirit returned the instant her husband died, and for the last 187 years, her forlorn ghost has been said to haunt the bridge and the surrounding areas, searching for her long lost love. Usually seen on dark and rainy nights, she has reportedly manifested as blue and white lights, a shadowy figure, and sometimes in the transparent form of a young woman wearing white. Early encounters with Elizabeth’s ghost were reportedly unpleasant and unsettling, though recent ones seem to be more benign.

Other apparitions allegedly haunting the bridge include a murdered moonshiner and a headless wagon driver. 

Bellamy Bridge was abandoned in 1963, when County Road 162 was built, and is now closed to vehicles. It can still be reached on foot, via the half-mile Bellamy Bridge Trail. Ghost hunters continue to make the pilgrimage to the bridge and ghost tours are held every year, on the Friday and Saturday closest to Halloween.