Poinsett Bridge

Built in 1820, the Poinsett Bridge is the oldest bridge in South Carolina and believed to be the oldest in the entire Southeastern United States. Designed by Robert Mills, it was named one of the 30 most haunted places in America by Conde Nast Traveler.

Poinsett Bridge is the oldest surviving bridge in South Carolina and possibly in the entire southeastern United States, built in 1820 as part of the State Road connecting Columbia to the mountains along the Old Buncombe Road. Many historians attribute the design to Robert Mills, the state architect who also designed the Washington Monument, though some dispute this attribution. The bridge is named for Joel Roberts Poinsett, a South Carolina statesman who served as the first United States Minister to Mexico and later as Secretary of War, and who championed the road-building project as president of the Board of Public Works. The fourteen-foot Gothic-arched bridge spans a small creek in a remote wooded area near Landrum, and its pointed stone arch is one of only a handful of Gothic-style bridges surviving from the early American period.

The paranormal activity at Poinsett Bridge has earned it a place among the thirty most haunted locations in America according to Conde Nast Traveler. The most commonly reported phenomenon involves vehicles that refuse to start after visitors park and turn off their engines in the small lot near the bridge. Multiple visitors have described the same experience -- they explore the bridge and surrounding trails, return to their car, and find that the ignition simply will not turn over. The vehicles start without difficulty once they are pushed or towed a short distance away from the bridge.

After dark, the bridge and its surrounding forest generate a concentrated array of paranormal phenomena. Bizarre screams have been heard echoing through the woods, though no source can be identified. Strange lights appear among the trees and around the bridge arch, floating and moving in patterns that do not correspond to any natural explanation. Visitors have reported feeling the touch of a ghostly hand on their arm or shoulder while standing near the bridge, and some have seen white figures moving through the property in the darkness. Cold spots appear suddenly in the humid Upstate air, and an overwhelming feeling of unease settles over many visitors as they approach the bridge at night.

The legends surrounding the bridge's haunting vary. Some stories connect the ghosts to travelers who died along the Old Buncombe Road, which was a dangerous route through the mountains used by settlers, drovers, and merchants. Others link the paranormal activity to the Masonic symbolism some observers see in the bridge's Gothic arch, suggesting the structure was designed with occult significance. A darker legend tells of a man who was murdered and thrown from the bridge, his spirit now trapped at the site of his death. Whatever the origin, the concentration of independent reports from visitors who experience the same phenomena -- cars that will not start, ghostly touches, white figures in the woods -- suggests something at Poinsett Bridge that cannot be easily dismissed.

Today Poinsett Bridge is part of the Poinsett Bridge Heritage Preserve, managed by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. The preserve offers hiking trails through the surrounding forest, and the bridge itself is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors are welcome during daylight hours, though those who have experienced the bridge after dark may think twice before returning.