The Haunting Urban Myth of the Screaming Bridge in Arlington

(Arlington, Texas) - There are a ton of scary stories and urban myths that get told every Halloween based in Texas. How true these stories remains to be seen. It's still fun to light a fire and tell these stories after the sun goes down.

Some of these stories and urban myths have been passed around for so long that they've reached truth status. There is one story that comes out of Arlington about a bridge that you can supposedly still hear the screams of three teenagers who were killed there. That bridge is called the Screaming Bridge and reading the story will send chills down your spine.

The Screaming Bridge Urban Myth in Arlington

The story goes that on the night of February 4, 1961, six teenage girls from Arlington High School were driving down what was Arlington-Bedford Road (theboneyard.org). It was dark so they couldn't see that an upcoming wooden bridge was out, causing them to crash. Mary Lou Goldner, Claudie Jean Reeves, and Kathy Fleming were killed. Donna Post, Dorothy Ibsen, and Jo Ann Anderson all suffered severe injuries with Jo Ann having to undergo emergency brain surgery.

It was reported that another driver, Bill Young, had stopped for a train not far from that bridge and noticed it was out. When he saw the girls approaching the area, he honked his horn as a warning to them. It is believed this just frightened the girls and caused the driver to speed up. Young called authorities about the accident.

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The Reason the Screaming Bridge was Out

The bridge had burned and was repaired two years prior to this accident. The bridge had burned again just a few days before the accident. Barriers had been put up to warn drivers in the area but those barriers had been removed for unknown reasons. After an investigation, it was determined that four Arlington High School boys had set the bridge on fire.

Clinton Veres, Tracy Stanley, Ronald Max Moore, and Richard Truett Rivers were arrested and indicted just two weeks after the accident. The story goes that the boys decided to set fire to the bridge in a racially motivated attempt to prevent a largely black community from traveling it. One of the boy's attorneys suggested it was "just a prank."

A Second Deadly Accident at the Screaming Bridge

In March of 1994, two women decided to race an oncoming train but ended up crashing, killing both of them. After that accident, the road was closed. It was said that when people visited the ravine where that wooden bridge once stood, you could hear the screams of the girls killed there in 1961.

Today, people mistakenly believe The Screaming Bridge is at the end of Trammel Davis Road. The area has even been the subject of paranormal investigations. You can visit the original site though it's nothing more than a dirt trail surrounded by trees (WFAA). While the haunting may not be real, what happened there is, no matter how the urban legend has grown or the facts twisted.