Aurora Bridge | Seattle’s Most Haunted Bridge
Aurora Bridge, also known as George Washington Memorial Bridge, connects Queen Anne and Fremont on the north side of Seattle. Today, it’s one of Seattle’s most haunted places.
Listen To Haunted Aurora Bridge Segment
Phantom Car Spotted … Twice!
I received not one but two ghostly encounters last week (August 12th). They were both sent by email, which is shocking enough that 2 people wrote in. What’s most exciting: Both writers had the same experience on different nights. That would be between 3 AM and 4 AM (a.k.a. the witching hour).
So, what did they experience? A phantom car, specifically a disappearing one.
A New Phantom Car Legend
Here’s the first ghostly story from a reader, Aisling:
During witching hour, between 3-4am on August 10, I passed a
vehicle that was driving very slowly on the Aurora bridge. It vanished
right after I passed it! I was completely sober and was not imagining
a car in front of me. Shaken, I texted my sister who has a special
connection with the spirit world. She said her husband has experienced
the same phenomenon while driving across that bridge during witching
hour – cars vanishing.
I also asked for a description of the car and got even more spooky details. Here’s more from Aisling:
Jake, the model of the car was unfamiliar to me. It did not have any badges or emblems on it featuring the make or model of the car. A lot of people in Seattle drive Tesla’s which sometimes don’t have an obvious emblem or logo visible, but I am very familiar with the shapes of these cars and I can easily identify them.
The car I saw was black with two small circular red tail lights. The license plate seemed to be there, although the plate lights were quite dim. The type of car it resembled to me most, from the back, is the Chrysler PT Cruiser from the early aughts. However, there wasn’t a Chrysler emblem above the license plate and there were only 2 small red tail lights. Additionally, there wasn’t a back windshield wiper. The car also seemed to be lower in height. Other than being black, there was nothing that made it distinguishing. The shape resembled a smaller version of the cruiser, which I haven’t seen in years.
I did not look at the car as I drove past and then it was gone. I never saw any headlights. There simply wasn’t a vehicle there. And there were no vehicles driving across the bridge in the other direction. There were absolutely no vehicles on the bridge at all except for mine.
Now for the second driver, who wished to remain anonymous: He was going south, closer to 4 AM on August 11th. He could see 2 lights, like headlight beams, a few car lengths in front of him, cruising right along but he didn’t see a car. Normally, you’d see the brake lights on the back, but there weren’t any. When the lights got halfway across the bridge, they just blinked out.
Legend Interpretation
This sounds a lot like a disappearing car motif. Disappearing cars sound exactly like their description: A car approaches, passes, follows, or is seen ahead and then simply ceases to exist. However …
Comparing To The Haunting Tradition
Phantom cars, or a disappearing car in this case, are not usually associated with Aurora Bridge. It’s the witnesses’ reports of jumpers, which we’ll get into more in the next section. So, this is something new to add to Aurora Bridge’s lore. And let’s see if more people experience the phantom car on lonely nights during the witching hour.
Now, I’m going to speculate on the type of car it is, the DeSoto Airflow. The PT Cruiser, mentioned by Aisling, was modeled after the DeSoto Airflow. The Airflow became popular in the 1930s, and many people would’ve driven it as their family car. Also, many people crashed into the safety isles placed at the north- and south-ends of the bridge. While I didn’t find any news reports mentioning the Airflow, it’s plausible this model may have been involved in the crashes.
Aurora Bridge’s Tragic History
It’s should come as no surprise that many of the ghosts are linked to suicides. In January 1932, the bridge opened and the first person jumped to his death. Over the next 85 years, more than 230 people have ended their lives this way. Only the Golden Gate Bridge has had more suicides.
Seattle and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) tried to put up barricades or a fence to stop jumpers since the 1930s. In 2007, an initiative passed and funds were set aside. Construction began in March 2010 and completed in February 2011, shortly after another suicide. WSDOT also added 6 emergency phones and 18 placards with a suicide help line number on them.
The fence has worked and the suicide rate has dropped. Actually, people have moved to a new place, the Pike Street overpass above I-5. In the past 3 years, at least 5 people have committed suicide from this bridge.
Aurora Bridge has also seen two horrific traffic incidents in the past 20 years.
In 1998, a Route 359 bus passenger, Silas Cool, shot and killed the driver, Mark McLaughlin. Cool then turned the gun on himself. The out-of-control bus went over the east side of the bridge and crashed into an apartment building below. The impact killed another passenger and injured more than 30 people on the bus.
In 2015, an amphibious vehicle, called a duck, collided with a charter bus in the middle of the bridge, killing 5 and injuring 50. According to witnesses at the scene, it appeared the duck crossed the median and caused the accident.
Ghosts of Aurora Bridge
There aren’t many ghosts haunting the bridge. Two sets of ghosts seem to manifest, a man with a dog and a couple. Surprising, right? You’d think there would be more based on the hundreds of suicides that happened here.
The man with dog seems to walk along the bridge between 2 AM – 4 AM. Witnesses then report the man grabs the dog and jumps off. The same witnesses said they could see the man with his dog watching them from a beach below the bridge. Unfortunately, no one has described the ghost and dog. If we knew the era from his clothing and dog breed, we could research suicides from that time and identify him.
The second haunting involves a man and woman walking along the pedestrian way. They stare at the living as they make their way across the bridge. When the living look back, the couple is gone. Again, no one has described the couple, nor do they seem to jump off the bridge like the other ghost.
In a third case, people have said a little girl hangs herself as she tumbles off the bridge. This one reeks of Internet hyperbole. I didn’t find any mentions of a hanging girl in the Seattle Times archives, nor the Seattle Post-Intelligencer archives.
Ghost Hunting on Aurora Bridge
First, be discreet. This is a sensitive subject to most of the people in the area. Many people, who live in Fremont, Queen Anne and Lake Union, knew many of the jumpers or they saw someone jump from the bridge. Don’t be obvious about your ghost hunting.
Second, there’s not much, if any, EVP captured. The bridge is a busy roadway most of the day and night. Your recordings will have a lot of noise on it. We say skip the audio equipment for this investigation.
Third, go hunting with a digital camera, IR camera or full spectrum camera. Most of the witnesses reported apparitions, so you may get lucky and capture Class 3 or Class 4 apparition.
Fourth, do your ghost hunt during the day. This may seem counter to what you read about the man with dog ghost, but most of the suicides happened during the day. The ghosts may manifest at their time of death. This means you may want that full spectrum camera handy because it should work the best under daylight conditions. Your IR cameras will likely get washed out by the sun. Digital cameras may not focus on the ghostly orbs and mists during the day, either.
If you capture any evidence, let us know about it. I’d love to put it on the blog.
Research sources:
Newman, R (2016). Haunted Bridges. George Washington Memorial Bridge (1st Ed., p. 57). Woodbury, MN:Llewelyn Publications.
Allison, R (2011). Spooked in Seattle: A Haunted Handbook. Aurora Bridge (1st Ed., p. 184). Birmingham, AL:Clerisy Press.
Gardner, J (2011). The Girl on the Bridge. SeattleMet.com. Retrieved from https://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2011/6/29/seattle-aurora-bridge-suicide-prevention-july-2011
Aurora Bridge. (n.d.) In Wikipedia.org. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Bridge
Monson, D (n.d.). MyNorthwest.com. Retrieved from http://mynorthwest.com/74238/was-the-aurora-bridge-suicide-fence-money-well-spent/
Weird US (n.d.). In WeirdUS.com. Retrieved from http://www.weirdus.com/states/washington/road_less_traveled/suicide_bridges/index.php
If you’ve encountered a phantom car or ghost on Aurora Bridge, let me know about it in the comments below. Thanks for reading Ghostly Activities. Much appreciated and take care!
.jpg){kind=link}