Haunted Bridge of Avon

A concrete bridge built around 1906 over White Lick Creek in Avon, located on an abandoned stretch of the old National Road. The bridge has been the subject of local ghost lore for over a century.

The Haunted Bridge of Avon is a massive triple-arch railroad trestle spanning White Lick Creek on County Road 625 East, about half a mile south of U.S. 36 in Hendricks County. Built in 1906-1907 for the Big Four Railroad (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway), the structure measures approximately 305 feet long and 70 feet high, featuring three spandrel arches of seventy-five feet each topped by twenty-four smaller arches. Engineer W.M. Dunne designed the bridge at a cost of approximately $70,000, and it was double-tracked in 1908. The bridge remains in active use today by CSX Transportation.

Reports of paranormal activity began remarkably quickly. The Friday Caller, a Plainfield newspaper, published accounts of "spirits in the area" on November 13, 1908 -- just one year after construction was completed. Three primary legends have persisted for over a century, each offering a different explanation for the hauntings.

The most widely told story involves a young mother who was walking the railroad tracks across the bridge, carrying her sick infant to reach a doctor. She allegedly slipped and fell from the bridge into White Lick Creek far below, killing both herself and her baby. At night, visitors claim to hear the sound of the mother screaming for her child, and a local tradition holds that drivers should honk their horns when passing underneath the bridge to drown out her cries. Some versions of the legend say the mother was struck by a passing train; others say she caught her foot on the track and dropped the baby into the creek before falling herself.

A second legend involves a construction worker who fell into wet concrete during the bridge's construction and was buried alive as the cement hardened around him. According to historian Susan Truax, some variants claim "a saw was left in the drying concrete, and it can be heard some nights" -- a phantom buzzing emanating from within the bridge structure itself. Another version describes a worker who lost his balance while sawing an oversized wooden beam, falling "directly into the freshly poured concrete." People claim to hear moaning from within the bridge when trains pass overhead.

The third legend tells of four workers who fell to their deaths into White Lick Creek during construction. Visitors report hearing phantom thuds and splashes in the creek below, as though bodies are still hitting the water.

Professor James Cooper of DePauw University offered a rational explanation for the reported sounds, noting that trains "passing overhead sends reverberations careening eerily through the structure's caverns," which creates an acoustically unsettling experience that could account for the moaning and screaming sounds attributed to ghosts. On hot summer days, condensation on the bridge has been interpreted by some visitors as "the ghost's tears adorning the bridge."

The Haunted Bridge has become deeply embedded in Avon's identity. The bridge appears on the official Avon town seal, and Indianapolis Monthly included it on its list of "50 Things Every Hoosier Must Do." Today, visitors can view the bridge from Washington Township Park via hiking trails or drive directly underneath it on County Road 625 East. The park entry is free, and the bridge remains one of Indiana's most famous haunted landmarks, its legends passed down for over 115 years.