Photos and page write-up by Adam Froehlig 2000
What a find this one was. This is a local bridge over the Chunky River, about 12 miles southwest of downtown Meridian, MS. The road it sits on, Stuckey Bridge Road, is a gravel Lauderdale County road out in the middle of nowhere. The bridge itself is over 150 years old! According to documents in the Lauderdale County Archives, the contract to construct the bridge was let in 1847. There is no definite date as to when it was completed, but estimates put it at around 1850. 150 years later, the bridge is still in use, in more ways than one...
According to local legend, the bridge is haunted by a ghost. As the story goes, Old Man Stuckey (whom the bridge is named after) owned and operated a hotel near the bridge site in the mid 1800s (the site was apparently along a stage route prior to the Civil War). The old man, as it was discovered later, would occasionally murder his hotel guests, steal their valuables, and bury the bodies along the riverbank. Old Man Stuckey was eventually found out, caught, and was hung from the bridge itself.
Some say that Stuckey is the one haunting the bridge. There have apparently been many sightings (including a few just within the past 2 years) of a ghost of an old man with a lantern walking along the riverbank near the bridge. There have also been stories of people hearing a splash in the river under the bridge when the river was otherwise deathly quiet.
A co-worker and I learned of the legend and the bridge in September, 2000, and decided to check it out. Unfortunately, we did not see or hear any ghosts, although we did take some good pictures of the bridge (both night and day), and also rescued a stray puppy that I found in the road near the bridge.
| Looking at the bridge from the northeast (the bridge is generally aligned northeast-southwest). It is an old overhead-truss structure, with only one lane (about 12 feet wide) and a wooden deck. That is my co-worker on the bridge.
Looking at the southwest end of the bridge. The wooden planking, shown more closely here, was replaced in early 2001.
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Another view of the bridge, also from the northeast.
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Looking up underneath at the southwest end.
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Another underneath view, looking at the northeast end from the southwest bank of the river.
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Somewhat of a side view, looking at the northeast end.
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Looking at a profile of the bridge from the west.
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The Lost Highway is copyright © 2005 by Jeffrey Carlyle. All photographers retain rights to their photographs. The Lost Highway was originally developed by Andy Field and Alex Nitzman for AARoads.