Yorktown, Virginia - Crawford Road

by Anthony Bradshaw
(Newport News, Virginia)

To whom it may concern,

I am currently deployed in Iraq, but I am from Newport News, Virginia.

Crawford road is a widely known haunted stretch of road. It has been known for apparition sightings, orb sightings, and even have modern day KKK activity.

I will attempt to set the mood of this dark place: Crawford Road is exactly what it sounds like. A road. Once you turn on this road you can only see about 5 meters ahead of you because of the headlights and the street lights from behind you. Eventually as the road bends you can see almost nothing.

There is a small bridge located about halfway up the stretch of road. On this bridge, it is said that the KKK frequently hung black women and children from this bridge and that there were multiple suicides. It is said that you can sometimes see people dropping down and swinging as if they were just hung. It is also said that if you turn your car off directly under the bridge that it will not turn back on.

My friends told me of this place and said that we should go see if the rumors were true. I have always believed in spirits and whatnot because of my religious beliefs, but I have always been a skeptic. So I readily agreed and jumped in the car. The first few times we went at night and nothing at all happened. My friends insisted that we go there just for a few more nights, I grudgingly complied.

Finally one night we decided to go at about midnight. We drove down this dark road slowly as usual. Finally when we reached the bridge it felt eerily cold. I parked the car directly under the bridge and turned the car off (something we had never done before, possibly because we were so frightened). We all got out of the car and walked around, looking at all the graffiti that had been put on the bridge walls over the years. Finally after a few minutes we decided nothing was going to happen and got back into the car. It was even colder in the car than it was outside (this was the middle of the summer mind you).

I attempted to turn my headlights on before turning on the car (force of habit). They would not turn on. After a few attempts I then tried to turn on the car. It turned on and then sputtered and turned off. I did not understand what was going on. My friends were getting increasingly agitated, thinking that I was playing a practical joke. Finally my friend shouted at me with words that no gentleman would say and at that moment without me touching anything (I had not touched the key since turning it to start the car in the first place), the car turned on and so did the headlights. At that moment I happened to look up and saw what I thought was a black women with a child in her hands drop from the bridge in front of the car, stop in midair as if hung by some invisible rope, and swing back and forth. My friend in the passenger seat saw this as well. We were both dumbfounded as we watched for the a few moments. I then heard my friend yell at me to get going from the back seat. I turned to look at him, then at my friend in the passenger seat, then back at the apparition. It was gone. The car was significantly warmer even though the Air Conditioning was on.

I have not returned there since.