Many of you may know about Old Alton Bridge, aka Goatman's Bridge thanks to Buzzfeed's video which was posted a year or two ago. Though they were unable to capture anything of importance during their investigation, I have a couple stories I'd like to share from my many trips to the bridge. For time's sake, I won't get into the reason why it's now called Goatman's bridge, but if anyone is interested, I can do a story on the history of the bridge and why now people believe it's haunted.
I live roughly 30 minutes from Goatman's bridge and had heard many stories growing up about how the bridge was incredibly haunted. Many of my classmates in high school would gather at the bridge in search of ghosts and other creepy beings but I never had the pleasure of going with them.
One night, one of my old friends and I decided to take a trip. We waited until sundown and began our ride towards the bridge. I remember feeling nervous and I wondered what the bridge would be like in person. I had this super spooky image in my head from hearing all of the stories and we both decided to play some music to match the mood. The area surrounding the bridge is mostly woods. It was darker than I imagined and the song we chose seemed to perfectly reflect what we were both feeling. What song did we choose? None other than the 28 days later theme, In the house, In a heartbeat.
When we arrived at the bridge, I was surprised to see another car there. Back then, the bridge was only popular with locals but most of the time there was nobody there. We parked our car by the road, and got out with our flashlights and my camera ready. I remember it being cold, and I could see my breath as I moved my flashlight around to see where I was going. When we reached the main entrance, we were greeted by a group of people who we later found out were paranormal investigators. They had permission to set up cameras in the forest and the surrounding area and they were there to check the footage and conduct a brief investigation. Without knowing, we had picked the best night to go out there! They asked my friend and I if we would like to join them. Before they could finish, we both said yes and began to follow them on their investigation.
After they reviewed their footage, they decided it was time to head towards the actual bridge and start trying to make contact. They began by recording the area around the bridge as we stood by. Then, they used their flashlights as a way of communication. What happened next is probably one of the coolest experiences with the paranormal that I have ever had.
The investigation team placed a flashlight on the bridge floor. They first wanted to show us that they had not tampered with the light. They had us go up there and stomp on the ground surrounding it to ensure it wouldn't affect the light in any way. Then, they had us pick up the flashlight and mess around with the buttons to prove there was no tampering involved. After we had done the initial check, we set the flashlight back on the floor and stepped back to join the team. They began by asking simple questions and at first, nothing was happening. Around the 3 minute mark, the light began to flicker. The investigators asked if there was anyone there and if there was, to please show us by turning off the flashlight. We stood around, hearts beating fast, waiting for something to happen. Suddenly, the light turned off. My friend and I looked at each other wide-eyed and kind of chuckled in disbelief.
Maybe it was a fluke? They continued asking questions, but not before thanking the spirit for cooperating and showing us we weren't alone. The light began to flicker again before quickly turning on and then off. None of us were scared, but we were certainly in shock.
This kind of stuff usually only happened in movies or ghost shows. Typically, I wouldn't have believed it, but we were all witness to it and we know the flashlight had not been messed with.
After all of that, the investigation team thanked us for sticking around and they went on their way. My friend and I were now even more excited about the area and decided to stay and explore the surrounding woods. As we headed deeper into the woods, I started taking random pictures. My flash was almost blinding, and I could see the bugs flying towards the light. I set my camera to shoot in "sports mode" so it could take very quick photos in succession. I didn't review any of them until I got home as to not waste time.
Once home, I quickly took my camera and began reviewing all of the photos. 98% had nothing of interest, but there was 2 photos that I absolutely cannot explain. It's going to be hard to describe without seeing the photo, but unfortunately, I've misplaced the SD card that contains the photo (this happened circa 2008/2009) so until I find it, I hope my explanation is sufficient.
In one of the photos, a white material can be seen in the woods. It covered most of the photo and the texture resembled that of an inside-out sock. The stranger thing is that the photos taken before and after were completely fine. Keep in mind that they were all taken within seconds of one another. In another of the photos, there was some smokey or mist like object under a tree. I remember I immediately went back outside and tried to replicate the smoke thinking maybe it was my breath on camera. No matter how hard I tried, it just wasn't the same. I eventually went back to the bridge the following weekend, this time with my younger brother too, but I was never able to replicate the images.
Unfortunately, due to Buzzfeed's video, many people have become aware of the existence of the bridge and the last time I went out there (Oct 2019) the bridge had been vandalized and there was huge crowds of people. I will leave a few pictures of the last time I was there.
Still, if you're ever in North Texas and are curious to check it out, I'd still recommend it. It's worth experiencing at least once.
These pictures are a few super quick (and shitty) shots of the bridge and the surrounding area that I took on Halloween night in 2019. As you can see, the bridge is heavily vandalized. Unfortunately, I couldn't really explore as there was a lot of teenage kids acting stupid and many were most certainly drunk so we decided to leave. We had originally planned for an investigation and live footage.
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