Iowa is a lot more than a stop on a would-be President's itinerary. It's home to plenty of bridges and overpasses, many of them said to be haunted. One of the state's oldest haunted bridges, the Banwell Bridge near Fort Dodge, is so old that no one is certain when it was built.
Like many mysteries, this haunted bridge in Iowa has a few names. It was first known as Tara Bridge, named for a nearby town no longer in existence. Locals sometimes also refer to it as Terror Bridge, but officially, it's called Banwell Bridge. Bridgehunter, a national database of historic bridges, calls it the decidedly nonthreatening "220th Street Overpass" and describes it as a "pony truss bridge."
Editor's Note: Some reports that the original Banwell Bridge was torn down and rebuilt.
At one time, the bridge was a major thoroughfare.
Today, it's a modest one-lane bridge over Union Pacific Railroad tracks. And it's seen a lot of violent deaths, according to locals.
There are several stories about ghosts who died on, or near, the bridge. Most involve the railroad in some way or another.
The most famous story involves a mother who killed her children there. One version has her taking the kids to see the train pass below and throwing each one off the bridge as it approached. Then she jumped after them.
Another version has a wife insane with grief after her husband died from yellow fever.
She took her six children to the tracks and tied them down before hanging herself off the bridge.
If you need to drive over the bridge at night, you might want to consider another route.
Locals say that if you drive to the bridge at night and turn off the engine, a female ghost will grab you and try to send you over the bridge, too.
There was a violent death near the bridge around 1890.
A young man named William Roberts was killed while working with a pile driver. A few years later, in 1893, the Fort Dodge Messenger reported that several railroad workers heard clanging and the "dull thud" of a pile driver that was nowhere to be seen.
Then there are the phantom trains and moans.
Railway workers also told the Messenger about seeing and hearing a phantom train at night that approaches from a distance and melts away. People have also reported for years about hearing a moaning woman and crying children from under the bridge.
Learn more about the story of this haunted bridge:
So, is Banwell Bridge in Iowa really haunted? Old structures carry a lot of history, some of which is frightening even if it's mostly legend. Still, there's no question that railroad work has always been dangerous. People understandably feel nervous whenever they're around places with tragic histories.
These days, driving over any Iowa bridge can be dangerous. Iowa Rep. Abby Finkenauer warns on her Facebook page that Iowa leads the nation in "structurally deficient bridges." With that being said, it may be safest to view the Tara/Banwell/Terror Bridge from a distance. If you feel brave enough, take a road trip to these other haunted places in Iowa.
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