Poinsett Bridge

South Carolina's oldest bridge, built in 1820 with a Gothic stone arch likely designed by Robert Mills, sits in a remote forest preserve near Landrum where cars refuse to start, visitors feel unseen hands grab them, and colored lights float on the mountainside. Named witnesses include Shanna Clippard, who felt a man's rough fingers close around her hand, and Mike Ross, who heard voices at the arch and saw floating lantern-like lights.

Shanna Clippard from Greenville was sitting in a parked car near Poinsett Bridge one night when she felt a man's rough hand and fingers wrap around hers on the car door handle. Nobody was there. "It never fails at night," she said, "to see, feel, or hear something that would leave most paralyzed."

The bridge is the oldest surviving in South Carolina, possibly in the entire Southeast. Built in 1820 as part of the State Road connecting Columbia to the mountains along the Old Buncombe Road, it stretches 130 feet over Little Gap Creek with a 14-foot pointed Gothic arch constructed from wedge-shaped stones fitted together without concrete or mortar. A brush drawing by Robert Mills, the state architect who designed the Washington Monument, shows a bridge with Gothic arches and a keystone identical to Poinsett Bridge. The original plans were lost, but most historians credit Mills with the design. The bridge is named for Joel Roberts Poinsett, the South Carolina congressman who championed the road project and later served as the first U.S. Minister to Mexico.

Conde Nast Traveler put Poinsett Bridge on its list of the thirty most haunted places in America, and the stories from visitors explain why. Cars are the signature problem. People park in the small lot, walk down to the bridge, explore the arch and the creek, then come back to find their ignition won't turn over. The engines start fine once the vehicles are pushed or towed a short distance from the site. Local resident Doris Davis confirmed the pattern, saying several people she knows have had the same experience.

Mike Ross, a Taylors native, heard voices near the arch, screams from the top of the bridge, and saw "red, white, and green lighted dots floating on the mountain side, similar to a lantern." Another visitor heard what they described as a Native American war cry, then loud thudding sounds as if something heavy was hitting the ground. Their van struggled to start afterward, the battery acting drained on a vehicle that had no electrical issues before or after.

In 2008, the GHOST PRO team took nearly 400 photographs at the bridge and found roughly 100 with anomalies, including orbs and what they described as an unexplained mist of human-sized proportions. The Charlotte Area Paranormal Society detected elevated electromagnetic field readings that moved through the area rather than staying fixed to any source.

The legends split into three camps. One says the haunting traces to a man who was lynched from the bridge, and visitors at the arch around two in the morning have described hearing screams and seeing a figure hanging in front of the stonework. A second theory ties the activity to Native American burial grounds disturbed during the road's construction. The third points to travelers who died along the Old Buncombe Road, a dangerous mountain route used by settlers, drovers, and merchants hauling goods between the coast and the Appalachian interior.

The bridge sits inside the Poinsett Bridge Heritage Preserve, managed by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. The preserve expanded by 283 acres in 2024, tripling its size. Hiking trails wind through the surrounding forest, and the bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It's a beautiful spot during the day, all creek water and stone and filtered light through the tree canopy. At night, it becomes something else.