Stowe, Vermont

Emily’s Bridge

New England covered bridge where a jilted lover is said to have hung herself before haunting it.

Most of the covered bridges in New England are known for their picturesque qualities, but Emily’s Bridge in Stowe, VT, has a more infamous reputation. Built in 1844 to carry what came to be known as Covered Bridge Road over Gold Brook, “Emily’s Bridge” is a single-lane, 50-foot-long bridge. Its wooden frame is dark and weathered, and it was here, if legend is to be believed, that a girl with a broken heart committed suicide.

In the mid-1800s, Emily was supposed to meet her paramour at what was then called Gold Brook Bridge to elope. When he never showed, Emily killed herself in a savage fit of desperation, hanging herself from the rafters of the covered bridge. In the ghost story that followed, Emily is apparently an angry specter. Tales of claw-like gouges down the sides of cars passing through the bridge and bloody scratches down the backs of pedestrian crossers are bandied about just as much as the sound of loosely dragging feet on the roofs of cars or the noise of a strange voice emanating from inside the short tunnel.

Interestingly enough, it’s not just called Emily’s Bridge by supernatural enthusiasts. The name has carried over into the tourist products of Stowe, whose shops sell quaint little postcards and souvenirs featuring the bridge against the cozy backdrops of fall and winter and labeled in pretty script, “Emily’s Bridge.”

Adapted with Permission from: The New England Grimpendium by J.W. Ocker