During the 1830s, the town of Marianna was the site of a horrific tragedy.
Legend has it that a woman named Elizabeth Bellamy lived in a farmhouse nearby.
On the day of her wedding, Elizabeth woke up, proceeded with her morning ablutions and then put on her wedding dress.
A Heart Breaking Marianna Legend
Updated 2/10/2020 – Not long after, Elizabeth walked near a candle and her wedding caught fire.
Utterly panicked, Elizabeth ran from the second story of the farmhouse and through the main living space on the first floor.
She hurled herself out the door, but not before several of the curtains in the house caught fire.
Elizabeth ran to the river that Bellamy Bridge was built over and threw herself into the water.
Unfortunately, the damage had already been done.
Elizabeth suffered from third degree burns all over her body and died a few days later.
Today, many residents of Marianna believe the ghost of Elizabeth Bellamy haunts the bridge.
Kevin, a local paranormal enthusiast, believes these rumors to be factual.
He once encountered the ghost himself.
“I’m a photographer and I often photograph the sky at night,” he said.
“I was walking along Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail when I finally came across the bridge.
It looked really beautiful, with the moon right above it, so I took several photos.
“The moment I looked up from my digital camera, I got this strange sensation along my back.
You know the expression; someone is dancing on your grave? Well that’s how it felt—like fingers of the dead were cascading down my back.
Appendages in the Water
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“I didn’t want to leave, but I did want to get a ways away from that particular spot.
I found myself walking closer to the bridge.
The moment I was about a foot away, something compelled me to pause,” he shivered.
“I looked down by the water, and suddenly these short white things bopped up upon the surface.
I peered closer and yelped out loud.
They looked like human fingers trying to reach for me!” he shuddered once more.
“I scrambled away and ran back to my car.
One of my friends is a local science teacher and he speculated that what I saw in the water was in fact a tubular white flower, known as Sacred Flower of the Incas.
But I was certain about what I saw that night—which was proved when I went to bed,” Kevin murmured, and fidgeted with his hands.
“I had nightmares about the bridge every night after that.
I’m now seeing a sleep specialist because of it.
Every night I walk along that bridge in my dreams, and see the human hands roaming about, detached on the water, even thought the bridge is no longer in tact and it would take a tight rope walker to cross it in reality.
“Then I see this screaming woman running down to the water, her head engulfed in flames.
A week after my real life visit, I got the photos I had taken developed.
In every single shot I took of the bridge I saw this strange mist hovering over it, moving around frame by frame.
“Some people claim it was just a swarm of insects, but it looks like a dead woman to me,” Kevin nodded.
“That is Marianna’s most haunted bridge.”