Silver Bridge Disaster 40 Years On
On December 15th 1967 at about 5PM, the Silver Bridge spanning the the Ohio River between Kanuaga, Ohio and Point Pleasant, West Virginia collapsed. Shoppers and others coming home with Christmas trees strapped to their roofs were stopped in a traffic jam on the main span when one of the massive “eye-bar” links supporting the structure failed and sent 37 cars and trucks plunging into the frigid waters of the Ohio River. 46 people died in the holiday season tragedy.
Exactly a year and a month earlier, two married couples were driving by an isolated spot near Point Pleasant, known locally as the “TNT” area, because it was surrounded by the ruins of an abandoned dynamite factory.
The good folks at Wikipedia continue:
They noticed two red lights in the shadows by an old generator plant near the factory gate. They stopped the car, and were startled to discover that the lights were actually the glowing red eyes of a large animal, “shaped like a man, but bigger, maybe six and a half or seven feet tall, with big wings folded against its back,” according to Roger Scarberry. Terrified, they drove toward Route 62, where the creature chased them at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour.
Going down the exit road, they saw the creature standing on a nearby ridge. It spread its wings and flew alongside their car to the city limits. They drove to the Mason County courthouse to alert Deputy Millard Halstead, who later said “I’ve known these kids all their lives. They’d never been in any trouble and they were really scared that night. I took them seriously.” He followed Roger Scarberry’s car back to the secret ex-U.S. Federal bomb and missile factory, but found no sign of the strange creature. According to the book Alien Animals, by Janet and Colin Bord, a poltergeist attack on the Scarberry home occurred later that night, during which the creature was seen several times.
Does this look like a giant owl to you?
Witness drawing of Mothman.
Many of you know about John Keel’s legendary book on the subject: The Mothman Prophecies. It (or the film made from it) are most people’s intorduction to the events of that very strange and quite frightening year in Point Pleasant, which featured the aformentioned poltergeists, but also numerous UFO sightings, precognitive dreams, doppelgangers and the comings and goings of the eerie “Indrid Cold.”
Despite numerous attempts to debunk the Mothman itself, the concatenation of strange events in the area from 1966-67 still continues to defy rational explanation, and is a classic case of a paranormal “window”-type event. Like hauntings and UFO flaps, the period of strangeness lasted for a finite amount of time, and Keel looked at the period in a way that still provides a good lens to examine other spooky goings-on. Like some sort of macabre exclamation point, the Silver Bridge collpase seemed to put an end to the paranormal events at Point Pleasant.
One of the most interesting takes on the Mothman legend utilizing photography, artwork and stories can be found at Andy Colvin’s (known as “Mothmanphotographer”) site and blog.
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Dec 15 2007 
December 15th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Happy Birthday Mothman, I love you. But please tell Mr. Indrid Cold not to ever, ever call me.
December 15th, 2007 at 10:27 am
On the frontpage of Yahoo they have a AP story about it- but no mention of Mothman. This was one lucky guy:
A traffic light had been malfunctioning all day, causing cars and trucks to back up on the bridge, which had linked Point Pleasant and Kanauga, Ohio, since 1928. Darst said he felt anxious waiting in traffic and eventually pulled out and sped off the bridge by driving in the opposite lane.
“I could feel something was wrong. Something was in the air,” he said.
December 16th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Man, this year has had more than its share of paranormal anniversaries!
December 16th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Hold on a sec. The Mothman Prophecies as a book is really scary — for real! The movie was a dud. But more importantly doesn’t Loren Coleman argue in a recent Mothman blog of his that John Keel misrepresented Mothman as having sinister characteristics. I thought Coleman argued that in fact the thing was more like a big bird and only later, when Keel (a big bird himself, haha) started doing the NYC slicker trip did things get the necessary marketing spin.
How’s about that one? Sacred Cow thrown on the fire. Now someone’s supposed to look up that Coleman blog in mystification and then find out that I’m right and they’re wrong. haha
December 16th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
LOL — so thats what the mothman proph. was all about… Strange, I’ve passed it all by before; but now I’m sorta intrigued.
December 16th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
For your information drew hempel, snuffalopagus isn’t a cow, he’s a wooly mammoth.
December 18th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
All,
Although I have suspected Keel of stretching the facts on a few occasions, I fail to see how he could have made up ALL the mothman/ paranormal events that people in the Point Pleasant were experiencing before he arrived, and independently of his involvment.