The Screaming Bridge, One of the Biggest Urban Myths in North Tx

Texas is full of urban myths and wild tales that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. They involve anything from drowning to murder to sacrifice and will scare even the strongest willed people. With the way Texas has grown, it's hard to believe that areas around Dallas were once kinda remote with blacktop or dirt roads. One of those roads was in Arlington that lead across a bridge where three teenagers were killed and three others were severely injured. Some say to this day, you can hear their screams when visiting that area.

The Screaming Bridge

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. It was dark so they couldn't see that an upcoming wooden bridge was out. Because of that, their car crashed into the other side of the ravine. 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 (theboneyard.org).

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.

Why was the bridge out?

That was obviously the question asked after this accident happened. That bridge was burned and repaired two years prior. The bridge had been burned again just a few days before this 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 stopped and they 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."

Another Deadly Accident

In March of 1994, two women decided to race an oncoming train. Their vehicle ended up crashing killing both women. 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.