the tallahatchie bridge ghost

there's easily more documented ghosts in this area, but for some reason this one story has just stuck in my mind ever since i first heard it. so, i figured id start with this little-known ghost story i originally got from my mom, who grew up in the town. the tallahatchie bridge ghost, in new albany, mississippi

her version went like this: when going over the tallahatchie bridge at night, every once and a while you'd see a woman on the edge of the bridge's railing, overlooking the river. her hair not effected by wind, her dress seemingly charred and burned, and she'd just watch you as you drove pasts her. then, if you drove back over the bridge again later that night, she'd have changed- a woman floating over the center of the bridge, burning and screaming in agony.  you'd stop in the middle of the road out of fear, and then you'd open the car door and she'd be gone again.

after asking around the town i've gotten a few more stories that sound similar, and a few supposed explanations behind her.

one (from a teenager, who could have been entirely just fucking with me, so full disclosure) claimed she was the victim of a witch burning, in the early 1900's. i've not been able to find any records of a witch burning in this part of mississippi on my own, but funily enough this version is really similar to another common ghost story in another town further south- the witch of yazoo city, which i definitely want to write about on here soon. this version's likely been merged with that story through word of mouth, but it is interesting as new albany did experience a severe fire like in the story of the yazoo witch. 

it's a little hard for me to find records of it online, and i haven't been able to visit the union county library's newspaper archive in a while, but from what i have been able to find right now around 1887 the town suffered a severe fire during the reconstruction era, when the town was only ~600 people strong. about 20 or so years later yazoo city would experience their 1904 fire, which was commonly blamed on the yazoo city witch, so this might just be an interesting case of syncretism from these two cities.

there's also the similarly harrowing option of this being the result of a hate crime. from the 1900's date in the first story, the ghost being seen burning alive, and the possibility of a suicide it's easily possible this could be a case of a racial hate crime from the reconstruction era. aside from the detail of a dress, ive never gotten a good description of the woman, and there wouldn't exactly be good records of this, so i can't confirm it but it does seem like a possible option.

against this theory is the fact that ive never heard anything like this, but.... the town likes to cover up things like this. brush it under the rug, ignore it, because it's convenient to them. hell, with all of these options you'd be looked down on for bringing up the events. you're not supposed to talk about suicide, or discrimination, because it's inconvenient and gross to think about, even though it never stops and might never will stop being a problem. its... annoying, as someone who wants to know the truth behind stuff like this. the only people that benefit from brushing this kind of thing off and not talking about it are the people who commit crimes like this, or are the reason someone's pushed to take their own life. it's important to keep these stories alive, even if they aren't nice to think about.

but, as i said earlier, i need to make a few trips to the area libraries to check their newspaper archives for information. i havent been in the town for a while now, so i'll likely make an update post if i find anything of use or need to correct my information. if you see any incorrect information or have a correction i need to make, just comment it under this post or dm me, i probably missed a few things here and there and probably looked over a few typos as well. my next post will probably be a more well documented story, so hopefully you guys can get more than hearsay next time lol

(btw, im getting my camera fixed in the next few weeks, so hopefully ill be able to go out to the locations and get some footage and photos for you all :) wanted to this time but my camera got fucked up a few days ago and i had to get it fixed)