Fundraising for Bellamy Bridge footbridges reaches goal!

Bellamy Bridge near Marianna, Florida

The Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail is about to take a major step forward!

Located at 4057 Highway 162, Marianna, Florida (between Greenwood and US 231), the one-half mile walking trail provides access to Jackson County's historic Bellamy Bridge. The old steel-frame span across the Chipola River turns 100 years old this year and is the focal point for one of Florida's best known ghost stories.

As of yesterday, the effort to raise $7,500 to fund new footbridges along the trail has reached its goal.

Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail

The Jackson County Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved the expenditure of $5,000 by the county's Tourist Development Council to support the project.  The money for the capital/interpretive project comes from the county's hotel or "bed tax," which is paid by visitors who enjoy stays at hotels in Jackson County. NO property tax money is being spent on the project.

The use of "bed tax" funding on the boardwalks also received unanimous approval from the Jackson County Tourist Development Council and matches $2,500 raised locally through donations from citizens and businesses. Most of these donations were small and reflect the wide interest the community has taken in the project.

Flooding in 2013

The construction of the boardwalks, which will cross the sites of two historic wooden bridges that once served as approach structures for the main bridge, will open Bellamy Bridge even during most times of high water. Much of the trail follows an elevated causeway built in the 1870s, but gaps where the two wooden bridges once stood have allowed river flooding to block the trail for months at the time.

All of that will soon change. The construction of the footbridges will allow visitors a high and dry way of reaching Bellamy Bridge except during the highest of floods.

In addition, the new footbridges along with leveling work along the trail will open it for persons of all abilities by making it passable for wheelchairs, powerchairs, etc.

"Orb" at Bellamy Bridge
Notice how it illuminates the ground!

A beloved landmark for generations, Bellamy Bridge may be the "most haunted" bridge in Florida. It is also the oldest. Tragic stories dating back more than 100 years have led to the growth of four different ghost stories in the bridge area, the most famous being the tale of Elizabeth Jane Bellamy. The young woman came from an elite antebellum family. She died in 1837 and alleged sightings of her ghost in the Bellamy Bridge were first reported more than 120 years ago.

The Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail was opened in 2012 as a new and free way for the public to reach the historic bridge. The former access route, via Bellamy Bridge Road, was closed by private landowners. The trail, however, approaches the bridge from the opposite side of the river, is well-marked and features a rock parking area, interpretive panels and benches for resting at key intervals.

The path also passes through one of the most beautiful natural settings in all of Florida.

To learn more about the Ghost of Bellamy Bridge, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/bellamybridge.

To learn more about the Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail, please visit www.bellamybridge.org.

Interpretive Kiosk erected at Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail!

New Interpretive Kiosk at Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail

The first of a number of planned interpretive panels have gone up at the Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail in Jackson County.

Located at 4057 Jacob Road (Highway 162) north of Marianna, the trail provides a beautiful one-half mile walk to historic and reportedly haunted Bellamy Bridge. Please note  that the entrance to Bellamy Bridge is no longer on Bellamy Bridge Road. Visitors must now enter from the new parking lot on Highway 162 (Jacob Road). It is on the left 1/10 of one mile west of the modern bridge over the Chipola River.

New Kiosk and the entrance to the Trail

The new interpretive kiosk is the first of eleven planned interpretive stations that are being placed as part of the marking of the new Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail, a driving tour of places in Jackson County with a connection to Florida's Spanish history. It features two panels, the first of which tells the story of the Bellamy Bridge area in Spanish Colonial times.

It was somewhere near Bellamy Bridge that Spanish explorer Marcos Delgado crossed the Chipola River in September 1686. Instructed to march northwest from Mission San Luis (present-day Tallahassee) to investigate reports of French intrusion in Spanish territory along the Mississippi River, Delgado crossed the Apalachicola River into Jackson County following a pathway that should be considered the real Old Spanish Trail.

Closer View of the new Kiosk, trail entrance in the background.

His journal mentions passing Mission San Carlos, which will also be a stop on the new Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail, before passing on to Blue Springs , another stop on the new driving tour, and then turning north and west to the Chipola River in what is now the Bellamy Bridge vicinity. Delgado and his followers crossed the river before passing out of Jackson County near what is now Campbellton. He described seeing buffalo grazing not long after he crossed the river.

The Interpretive Panels in the new Kiosk

The kiosk also tells the story of the Battle of the Upper Chipola, an important battle of the First Seminole War. The fight took place in March 1818 between the U.S. allied Creek Brigade of Brig. Gen. William McIntosh and the Red Stick warriors of the chief Econchattimico ("Red Ground King). Econchattimico and his men were defeated and 20 of his men were killed while more than 150 other men, women and children were captured. According to Gen. McIntosh's report, the battle took place on the west side of the Chipola River about two miles below the forks of the creek where the river is formed. That would place its location as being somewhere in the vicinity of the Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail, although the exact site of the battlefield has never been found.

Finally, of course, the new interpretive kiosk tells the story of the famed Ghost of Bellamy Bridge. It is said by many that the restless ghost of Elizabeth Jane Bellamy, a young woman who died during antebellum times, haunts Bellamy Bridge and its vicinity. Her story is deeply embedded in the culture and folklore of Florida and is a special part of Jackson County's history.

A special "ghost walk" to commemorate "The Night Elizabeth Died" will begin at the Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail parking area at 7:30 p.m. (Central) on Saturday night, May 11th.  The public is invited and the guided tour and ghost story telling is absolutely free!  Be sure to wear comfortable shoes and bring a flashlight and mosquito repellent if you come!

The new kiosk was funded by the Jackson County Tourist Development Council using money generated by a tax on hotel accommodations. No property tax dollars have been expended on the kiosk or the trail.

To learn more about the Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail and to obtain directions, please visit www.bellamybridge.org. You can read more about the Ghost of Bellamy Bridge at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/bellamybridge.

The Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail: A Proposed Multi-Use Trail in Jackson County, Florida

Bellamy Bridge in Jackson County, FL

You may have caught some of the news coverage last week about the planned new Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail here in Jackson County.

I've had many questions since the story broke and thought I would try to answer some of them here by providing you with basic information on the project. Be sure to visit my primary Bellamy Bridge page at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/bellamybridge for more information after reading this article!

Here are the basics...

Route of Planned Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail

The Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail will be a short (less than 1/2 mile) multi-use trail that will connect County Road 162 with historic Bellamy Bridge.

The steel-frame bridge was built in 1914 and is the second oldest bridge of its type in Florida and one of the ten oldest bridges in the state. It was originally built by and is still owned by Jackson County, but public access to it has been closed for nearly two decades.

While the old bridge itself will mark the 100th anniversary of its construction in 2014 and is a significant historic landmark in its own right, it is perhaps best known as the centerpiece of one of Florida's best known ghost stories: The Legend of the Ghost of Bellamy Bridge.

West End of Bellamy Bridge
Where the Planned Trail will End

While many people have heard of the ghost story, most do not realize that the historical significance of the Bellamy Bridge site goes far beyond the much loved folk tale. In fact, the crossing site where the bridge stands today has been in use for more than 300 years.

The first recorded use of the crossing took place in September 1686, when the Spanish expedition of Marcos Delgado crossed the Chipola River at the Bellamy site. He had been ordered to investigate reports of French intrusion on Spanish lands and marched west from Mission San Luis (present-day Tallahassee) at the head of a column of Spanish soldiers and Native American allies.

Upper Chipola River

The tale, which differs quite a bit from the true facts, revolves around the untimely death of a young woman named Elizabeth Jane Bellamy. She is buried in an overgrown plot near the bridge and for more than 100 years people have claimed to see her ghost in its vicinity. You can learn more about the legend and the real facts behind it by following this link.

Guided by Chacato Indians who had once lived in what is now Jackson County, Delgado crossed the Apalachicola River and marched west to Blue Springs where he and his men halted briefly to rest. Then he turned to the northwest and cut across a trackless wilderness to the present site of Bellamy Bridge. In his journal and letters he noted that the cane then growing along the river was enormous, with its stalks measuring up to 6 inches in thickness:

Continuing to the Northwest...there is a clayey swamp and in its center a stream which has 36 feet of width and a depth of 6 feet and the swamp itself has half a league of breadth. It is thick and it was necessary to cut the path. - Marcos Delgado (January 5, 1687)

Steel Framework of Bellamy Bridge

The trail cut by Delgado was used by Native American hunters in the years that followed and in 1819 was incorporated into an early road opened by American settlers who drifted down into Spanish Florida after the First Seminole War and built homes along Spring Creek near Campbellton. The road connected their settlement with Fort Scott in what is now Decatur County, Georgia.

At about the same time members of the Fort family settled on the east side of the Chipola where Bellamy Bridge now stands. The settlers called their path the "Fort Road," but whether it was so named because it ran to Fort Scott or because it passed by the home of Isaac Fort is not clear.

Bellamy Bridge and the Chipola River

The Fort plantation passed into the hands of Dr. Edward C. Bellamy in the 1830s and he operated a large plantation there until he left Jackson County on the eve of the War Between the States. His large home stood just south of the historic bridge, but was destroyed in an accidental fire many years ago. Only a cistern remains today.

Bellamy was the brother of Dr. Samuel C. Bellamy, who was the husband of Elizabeth Bellamy, the woman around whom the ghost story revolves. Samuel Bellamy built the first bridge at the site in 1844 to connect his plantation near Baker Creek northwest of Marianna with Edward's plantation at Bellamy Bridge.

The original wooden structure built by Dr. Bellamy was replaced several times over the years, but the Bellamy Bridge name stuck. In 1914, the Jackson County Commission authorized the construction of the historic steel-frame bridge and it was completed in December of that year. It served traffic until the early 1960's when it was replaced by the concrete bridge still in use today. The modern bridge is upstream from the historic steel bridge.

Map of Planned Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail
Click to Enlarge

Over the years, public access to the historic site was lost, but the new Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail project will change that.

The trail will be open for both walkers and bike riders and will run from a parking area on CR 162 just west of the modern concrete bridge down the old roadway to Bellamy Bridge. It is a joint project of the Friends of Bellamy Bridge organization, Jackson County Parks & Recycling and Northwest Florida Water Management District.

The trail will be free to use, is being funded entirely by private donations and will not interfere with hunting or other activities in the Upper Chipola WMA. Eventual plans include the placement of interpretive signs that will tell not only about the ghost story, but about the history of the bridge and crossing, the significance of the Upper Chipola River and the natural environment of the flood plain.

The project will be built in three phases, as donations make work possible. The first phase will consist of the opening of a simple trail and free guided tours to the bridge. The second phase will include the addition of interpretive markers and the development of plans for free programs for area schools and groups. The third and final phase will include the placement of foot bridges at two spots along the old road causeway, the placement of benches at key spots along the trail, the construction of an observation platform at the west end of the bridge and the official opening of the trail.

It is hoped that the entire project can be completed in time for the 100th anniversary of the building of the bridge in 2014.

To learn more about the Ghost of Bellamy Bridge, the history of the bridge and the proposed Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/bellamybridge.

Ghost of Bellamy Bridge

The photograph at right is of the old Samuel Bellamy mansion in Marianna. This was the home where Elizabeth Jane Bellamy supposedly burned to death on her wedding night, the primary event behind the Bellamy Bridge ghost legend. It is her ghost that is said to haunt the area around the bridge.

The mansion no longer stands, which is a shame because it was said to have been an architectural marvel. It stood in the center of the entire city block bordered by Green, Clinton, Market and Jefferson Streets.

In reality, Elizabeth did not die in a wedding not fire. I've recently updated the Bellamy Bridge story at www.exploresouthernhistory.com. Just follow the link and take a look, I think you'll find it to be a fascinating historical footnote in the history of Jackson County.