Haunted Jericho Covered Bridge.
As October‘s chilling winds sweep through the air, the atmosphere becomes ripe with the allure of ghostly tales and mysterious haunts.
It’s the time of year when whispers of the supernatural echo louder, and the shadows hold secrets waiting to be uncovered.
In the heart of Kingsville, Maryland, stands a landmark shrouded in eerie legend and spine-tingling tales – the Jericho Covered Bridge.
Nestled amidst the picturesque landscape, Jericho Covered Bridge exudes an aura of both rustic charm and eerie fascination.
It’s weathered wooden planks, and timeworn structure seems to whisper the secrets of centuries past.
But it’s not just its quaint appearance that draws attention; it’s the chilling stories that cling to its essence.
The Jericho Covered Bridge in Kingsville is rumored to be haunted.
It’s one of many Maryland urban legends. Read about this creepy covered bridge in Kingsville, Maryland.
I haven’t driven through it since my terrifying experience in the early 1990s.
The structure was built 1865 for $3,125 over the Little Gunpowder Falls.
The eighty-eight-foot bridge connects Baltimore and Harford County and is open to traffic.
The bridge has been renovated three times since its construction to keep it in service.
It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Like many old structures, people claim it is haunted.
According to local folklore, Jericho Covered Bridge in Kingsville is highly haunted.
Tales of runaway slaves being hung from the trusses after capture, a mother tossing her baby off the bridge into the water below and then hanging herself from the bridge, soldiers committing suicide on the bridge, and a horse and buggy careening off the bridge.
Legend has it that Jericho Covered Bridge is haunted by the spirits of those who met tragic ends within its confines. Tales of restless souls wandering its length in the dead of night have been passed down through generations, each adding to the mystique of this historic site.
One such tale tells of a young couple whose families forbidden their love. Desperate to be together, they made a pact to meet at the bridge under the cover of darkness, hoping to elope and start a new life far from prying eyes.
However, their plans were thwarted when tragedy struck, leaving their spirits forever bound to the bridge they had hoped would be their escape.
Another story speaks of a group of travelers who sought shelter from a storm within the bridge’s protective embrace, only to vanish without a trace, leaving behind nothing but whispers carried on the wind.
Despite its haunted reputation, Jericho Covered Bridge continues to draw visitors from near and far, each seeking to catch a glimpse of the otherworldly presences said to inhabit its shadows.
Some come armed with cameras and EVP recorders, hoping to capture evidence of the supernatural, while others simply come to soak in the eerie ambiance and sense the echoes of the past.
If you stop on the bridge at 3 a.m., turn off your lights, and turn them back on, you will see someone hanging from the bridge.
There is also a local legend about a monkey-like creature with a long tail that protects the bridge. Another tale involves a red-eyed demon who lives under the bridge and keeps away those he deems unwanted.
Haunted Jericho Covered Bridge
A 150-year-old covered bridge in Kingsville, MD, crosses Little Gunpowder Falls. The old Quaker Village of Jerusalem Mill is not far from the Jericho-Covered Bridge.
Legend has it that a ghostly female apparition called “The White Lady” haunts the Jericho-covered bridge. I had to dig a lot to find the story of this supposed “White Lady” that haunts the bridge.
A little backstory before I move forward, though.
Riding Through Haunted Jericho Covered Bridge
In high school, a friend and two girls drove up to the covered bridge one summer night. We thought it would be fun to “scare” the girls.
I must have been about 15 or 16 at the time, and my friend Steve and I were hanging out with two older girls that night. It was a decent night in Baltimore during the summer, with about 78 degrees and low humidity.
As we approached the bridge, I asked Stacy to turn off her headlights once we were halfway there. It was a moonlit night so we could see the other end of the 88-foot-long covered bridge.
We slowly entered the old, wooden structure; our windows were down, so we could hear the wooden floorboards creak as we slowly crept along. Halfway through, I asked Stacy to turn her headlights back on. Her friend Tina was in the back with Steve and was not enjoying our night of fright.
So, Stacy turned the headlights on and….. there was nothing to see in front of us. But I told everyone what we were supposed to see was not in front of us but behind us.
I told everyone not to turn around yet. Instead, I told Stacy to push the brakes so we could see behind the car. I tilted the rearview mirror so Tina and Steve could see what was behind us.
Stacy and I used the mirrors on our visors. I didn’t see anything, neither Steve nor Tina; however, Stacy floored it through the remainder of the bridge and didn’t look back.
We were yelling at Stacy to slow down because we were driving through a residential neighborhood with many winding roads, and we didn’t want to end up in someone’s living room.
Eventually, we returned to the main road, and Stacy pulled into a convenience store. She asked me to drive her car because she couldn’t. I switched places with her, but I wondered what happened back there before we left.
She told me when she looked in her mirror, she saw a figure of a woman wearing a white dress carrying something in her hands. She said she saw the ghostly figure at the point of the bridge we entered.
We drove the rest of the way in silence; none of us talked about it ever again.
Okay, it gets better. I have always been a fan of horror movies and all things paranormal, and I knew someday I would go back to Jericho Bridge at night and see if there was a White Lady that haunted the bridge.
Related: Patterson Park Story
Revisiting Haunted Jericho Bridge
Exactly three years, to be exact. Haunted Jericho Bridge is about 35 minutes north of where I grew up. When I was 18, I attended a party about 15 minutes from Jericho Bridge in nearby Perry Hall.
I went solo to the party that night because I had fallen asleep earlier that day and didn’t catch up with my friends to get a ride.
I arrived at the party around 10:30 p.m., had a few beers, hung out for a while, and decided to leave because I was still tired and groggy from the nap I had taken earlier.
I left around 12:30 a.m., hopped into my truck, and drove away. It was cool outside, so I rolled down the window to get some fresh air, waking me up.
On my way home, I got the idea to cut through Jerusalem Village and go home that way, which would shave off about 10 minutes of driving time.
It was tranquil that night, and not too many cars on the road, which I liked. I came upon Jerusalem Village, and the Haunted Jericho Covered Bridge is just up the road. I came upon the road to turn right towards the bridge. This night was dark because it was the beginning of a new moon.
I saw the bridge just ahead. I came upon it slowly and began to drive across it. As I went through the dark, shadowy bridge, I could feel the hairs standing on my neck.
It’s funny how the body responds when it knows something isn’t right.
I thought to myself that I must be paranoid or something.
I kept going through the bridge very slowly, and something inside me wanted to turn off the headlights like I was being challenged. Turning my headlights off at night and stopping on the bridge was terrible. However, the other part of me said, go ahead and do it,
So I did the intelligent thing: I turned off my headlights, waited a few seconds, and turned them on.
The windows on my Pathfinder were down, and I didn’t have power windows; I had the old-fashioned hand-crank windows. As I parked on the bridge with my headlights off, I distinctly heard a woman’s voice humming a dark lullaby.
I pressed my brakes to get some light behind me and then looked into my rearview mirror, and what I saw was….. Nothing. I sighed in relief and just wanted to get home and go back to bed.
I turned my attention away from my rearview mirror and looked forward through the windshield, and I saw something walk or move across the front of the bridge. My heart began pounding quickly, and I had a mild panic attack.
I rubbed my eyes and looked again, and I saw nothing in front of me except the other end of the bridge. I just took a deep breath and slowly drove forward. As I was moving forward, I looked in my rearview mirror to ensure there weren’t any cars behind me, and what I saw scared the crap out of me.
In my rearview mirror, I saw a pale-faced woman wearing a long, sheer white dress carrying a basket of flowers. She couldn’t have been farther away than 10 feet behind my truck. I hi-tailed it out of there and never looked back.
I sped the whole way home and was lucky to have returned in one piece. To say the experience freaked me out would be an understatement.
One other odd thing happened that night. The following day, when I went outside to get into my truck, I saw the strangest thing. There was a cluster of scratch marks on the hatch’s rear, looking like someone scraped their nails across the back of it.
Either way, the paranormal is nothing to play around with, and I have only been on the Jericho-covered bridge once since then, and that was a very bright, sunny day.
Related: Hampton House
My Conclusion
As October casts its spell and the veil between the worlds grows thin, Jericho Covered Bridge beckons those brave enough to venture into its realm of shadows and secrets.
Whether you believe in the supernatural or simply seek to immerse yourself in the rich tapestry of local lore, visiting this haunted landmark promises an experience long after the autumn leaves have fallen.
Jericho Bridge and the surrounding area are very haunted. Go if you dare, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!
If you enjoyed my Haunted Jericho Covered Bridge story, you’d like the story below.
Read Next: ⇒The Story of a Cannibal Satanic Farmer