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.

Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail is 100% Flooded

Jackson County's popular Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail is flooded for its entire one-half mile length as of today (February 13, 2013).

The Chipola River has been making a dramatic rise due to heavy rains that have fallen over recent days in Southeast Alabama. The river rises from creeks that form there. The trail could be walked all the way to Bellamy Bridge as recently as Monday, but by noon today was completely flooded and water was pouring across the new parking area on Highway 162 between Greenwood and US 231.

The trail follows the route of the historic old road that led to Bellamy Bridge from the 1600s until it was closed to the public in 1963 when the new Highway 162 bridge was completed nearby. Completed and opened to the public on November 1, 2012, the trail has become a popular recreation spot and has seen heavy traffic from county residents and visitors alike.

Bellamy Bridge is believed by some to be Florida's "Most Haunted Bridge." The historic steel-frame structure is said to be haunted by the ghost of Elizabeth Jane Croom Bellamy, a young woman who died in Jackson County on May 11, 1837. Her wispy ghost has been seen in the vicinity of the bridge and its wooden predecessors since at least the 1890s.

To learn more about the history of Bellamy Bridge, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/bellamybridge or consider my new book, The Ghost of Bellamy Bridge, which can be purchased on the upper right of this page.

The photos below were taken today (2/13/2013).

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.