I live in Newport News, VA right next to Yorktown. There are so many stories around here about Crawford Road and there seems to be some truth to it. It's a winding dark heavily shaded country road with room for only one car at a time, no street lights. There is a bridge that most of the tales revolve around. The story I've heard is that if you drive under the "haunted bridge", turn your car off and the lights, you will hear voices and angry dead slaves will be hanging from the brigde and trees, and you will be paranormally (if that's a word) "attacked" somehow. I wouldn't know from experience, I do know that evil things always happen there both day and night. Recently on the news someone attempted to murder someone and leave the body under the haunted bridge. That's in the day, and the first time I ever saw the road was on the news this year. I myself have never gone b/c I'm too scared I might "disturb" something, attract a restless spirit or something, but this area in general has a haunted history because of the history of Jamestown, Yorktown, the Hampton Harbor etc and all the battles, slaving industry, lynchings, and murders of native americans. Anyway, I did find these two stories on Crawford Road that are more specific than mine and a few other links, I was wondering if anybody had more than the local urban legends. Maybe some real history. Maybe you all want to take the teams out there and take pictures and record footage. If not it's still very interesting. I think there's some truth to it...
I was asked to share this haunt with everyone: The story starts with a dreary road named Crawford Road. Although the road is not significantly long, it definitely makes it up in horror. The history surrounding the road and mainly the bridge on the road is not for certain--however, there are some ideas. One story suggests that a young black bride fled her wedding and hung herself off the bridge to escape an undesired fate. Another suggests that a few black men were hung off the bridge by the KKK for a Klan statement. My experience with the road is limited--I have only been down it once. When we were traveling down the road, I had no previous knowledge of any of the legends that surrounded the road. I do know that when we were a good way before the bridge, I started to get those slow chills--you know the ones--where they start at the beginning of your neck and slowly make their way down your spine. The chills that let you know that something is just not right. I also felt the most incredible sense of dread all down the road, and the bridge...well, that just makes your heart skip a beat. My boyfriend, he's a different story. He's grown up around the area and has had many encounters with the road. Mainly 2 trips down it have stuck out in his mind. The one I am about to tell has an inkling of creepiness that still haunts him and his friends to this day: A friend of his had made him and his friends a burnt CD earlier that day. They were cruising along that night and decided to take a trip down Crawford. Everything was fine until they reached the bridge...while passing under the bridge, the track they were listening to on the CD started making a very high-pitched obnoxious squealing noise. The noise lasted for about 10 seconds until they were well away from the bridge...then suddenly the noise stopped, and the CD was back to normal. The freaky thing about this is that the CD was completely fine before then--they had been listening to it all night. What creeped me out is that that noise is forever imprinted on the track. You can still hear the noise if you play it. Another freaky trip happened to him a few years prior to the previous story. Once again, they were driving pretty late at night and all was fine 'til they drove to the bridge. As they went under the bridge, they felt as though they had ran over something, so they looked to see if they had indeed ran over anything...the funny thing was that nothing was there--at all. A little bit jostled by the incident, they proceeded down the road. However, things escalated at this point: the windows of the car began to fog up. The next thing they saw was handprints making their way up the windows from the outside. after they traveled up the windshield, they heard a thud on top of the car, as if something were trying to get into it. After the thudding stopped, they heard a smearing noise and the back window looked like someone had fallen off the top of the car and was sliding down the window...then the they heard another thud on the top of the trunk...then whatever it was--or could have been, hit the road behind them....scared out of their minds, they looked to see what it could have been. Once again, of course, there was nothing. Supernatural occurrences are pretty common on Crawford Road, from what I hear. A popular occurrence seems to include a lady in a white gown seen on top of the bridge before you go under it, then after the bridge, she is seen falling off of it and then stopping in mid-air and swaying as if she were hanging by a noose. Another popular occurrence is if you drive down the road late at night and stop underneath the bridge, your car will completely cut off...the battery will die and you will need to be towed out from under the bridge. Also, supposably Crawford road has been the site of many murders and other deaths. Many people who drive down the road claim to see something strange in front of their car, which causes them to swerve off the road. Usually, in this case, many meet a very tragic death. If you were to travel down the road in the daylight, you would see a ghastly amount of skidmarks scattered about the road. I saw an abundance of random car parts on either side of the road from where drivers had gotten into accidents. The road creeps me out--big time. I do know that the road holds many tragedies for those who dare to travel down it's path, especially late at night. If anything, one thing is for certain: the people whose lives met an end on that road definitely want more company. I also found this:
Yorktown - Crawford Road - A woman hung herself from an overpass on her wedding day. Her spirit has been seen her spirit, hanging in her wedding dress. Also, African Americans were hung down the road. A lot of spirits dwell on this road. - February 2005 Correction - Formerly listed under - Poquoson - Crawford Rd - There have been other stories about the part of the road where the Tour Road crosses over Crawford Rd. There is a story that on some nights that you can see a black lady in a white dress walk up on the bridge onto the ledge, then she falls off and then she stops in mid air and swings like she was hung. There have also been stories of your car cutting out and not starting. If you drove down it at night you could see someone hanging from the bridge where someone was hung years ago and that cars have shut off underneath the bridge. - December 2006 additional information: Before you come to crybaby bridge that runs about halfway down from the roads entrance on either side of the vast woods lies a fenced off road that actually heads back into a clearing if you're daring enough to cross the threshold. If you enter the clearing, you will find a solitary building that is long since abandoned with no doors. If you watch, there are red eyes that may appear in one of the open doorways (most likely the very last door all the way to the right) 'watching' you as you move around. Should you get close they may end up vanishing before you can locate them. Going into the building itself, however, yields the very eerie feeling of more than one 'being' watching your every move. It has been seen on film of shadow people walking around along the walls without actually anything being in front of the light source (always in the shape of a tall male creeping along). There have also been reports of people feeling like they have had their feet stepped on, voices whispering, and even hands lain upon the middle of their backs. This experience is random, but best done on a clear, moonless night. But you never know what you might find if you actually go to the radio station once the sun is down.
Other Crawford Road Links:
Haunted: Crawford Road, Yorktown, Virginia; Reported: August 21, 2007Crawford Rd (submitted 27 July 2005)