We unknowingly visited a haunted bridge the other day on our trip to Stowe. We pulled over on the dirt road to view what we knew as Gold Brook Covered Bridge, a historic bridge right at the intersection of Gold Brook and Stowe Hollow Roads.
Later that day when we got home, I was searching more bridges in Vermont and Emily's Bridge came up. It was in Stowe, but I hadn't seen it on the map before. When I clicked on an image of it, a photo of Gold Brook Bridge came up. Wait, this is the one we just visited. Why does it have two names ? Well, turns out the bridge has been claimed by a ghost named Emily who has become a Vermont folklore legend.
Emily was in love with a man who her family disapproved, so she decided to elope with him. They agreed to meet at the bridge at Midnight. The guy decides not to show up, which of course devastates her. She hung herself from the rafters of the Gold Brook Bridge, and presumably still makes her presence known there. Sources say her spirit lingers there waiting for her lover and she becomes more and more angry as time passes.
I started looking through my videos of our trip to see if there was anything eerie or paranormal. There was only one strange notion about our trip: the red leaf. As we stood by the river, I saw a beautiful bright red leaf trapped under a rock as the water moved it every which way. I lifted the rock and carefully took the leaf out of the water. There were no trees with red foliage around. Of course, the tree could have flowed down the river from a red tree we could not see. I took many videos of the leaf because of how strikingly beautiful and red it was. It contrasted so well against the trees in the background. I found it interesting since the color red is associated with anger.
