Teens go out to Ghost Boy Bridge to tell the legend to the new kid, who decides he’ll investigate it for himself. What could go wrong?
What are you reading right now?
DC’s Tales from the Dark Multiverse II – twists on classic comic book storylines
Books/short stories/poems/publishing projects you have out in the world now:
A wide collection of Haunted books like Haunted Garfield County and Haunted Oklahoma as well as A Compendium of Creeps with folklore from around the world.
What made you decide to write a story for Cry Baby Bridge: A collection of utter speculation?
In my folklore research, I’ve come across some twenty different bridges in Oklahoma all claiming to be “the real” Cry Baby Bridge. One of them, which inspired my story, is the “Ghost Boy Bridge” where they had the bridge but instead told legends of a hanging and added the boy jumper. The evolution of the story fascinates me, so I simply had to write it!
Did you grow up with a cry baby bridge legend? Is it something that affected you or was it a new story for you?
Cry Baby Bridge was a new legend to me, although we did have a great creek about a mile from our house on the farm. Years later, I was told by a family friend that there had been a wreck in a storm not at that bridge but on a “bad road” a few miles away in which the legend of the mother dying and the baby crying for hours came true. Fortunately, the baby survived in this real-world tale.
Why do you think this legend is so pervasive? What truth do you think is behind it?
One reason it might be so pervasive is that we simply have so many bridges out there. They make for great legend-tripping for people to visit and share the legend, which likely has happened somewhere or even right there.
In addition to a journalistic factual nature of some crash somewhere being true and perhaps applied to other sites, the folklore is fed by our mythic understandings of the world. Water is a powerful medium as it gives both life (we need to drink it) and death (we can drown in it). This makes it a gateway to the spirit world. People have also recognized roads, and especially crossroads, as liminal spaces where decisions must be made and energies flow. Bridges are where roads and water meet, making them deeply mythological.
What other projects are you working on? Where can we look for you next?
I’m working on a collection of modern urban legends, all less than 40 years old, called Never Sleep Again. We’ll take a look at worldwide tales like Momo, living mannequins, cursed websites, and so much more.
Final words:
Come on a ghost tour in Oklahoma City or Norman sometime! We have a plethora of historical hauntings to share.
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LC W. Allingham 
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