Bellamy Bridge is a steel-frame truss span built in 1914 over the Chipola River north of Marianna in Jackson County. It is the oldest surviving bridge of its type in Florida and is reached by the short Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail from a parking area on County Road 162. Earlier wooden bridges stood at or near the site from the 1850s. The figure most often attached to the crossing is Elizabeth Jane Croom Bellamy. She died on May 11, 1837, at age 18, of fever, most likely malaria. She and Dr. Samuel C. Bellamy had married in North Carolina in 1834. Their son Alexander died a week after she did. Samuel never remarried and died by suicide in 1853. Elizabeth was buried in a small grove near the river, a few hundred yards from the later bridge. That is the documented record. The ghost is the story that grew around it.
The legend says the couple married in a rose garden at a mansion in Marianna. On the wedding day, or the night after, Elizabeth’s dress caught fire from a candle. She ran from the house in flames, reached the river or the bridge, and threw herself into the water. She lived a few days more and died. Versions place her burial under trees near the present span. Locals say she still walks the swamp in a white dress, sometimes glowing or burning, searching for Samuel. Reports mention blue-and-white lights, a misty figure, and an unexplained chill. A brief 1890 newspaper item noted that “the lady of Bellamy Bridge has been seen of late.” Historian Dale Cox has shown that the fire-on-the-wedding-night detail does not match the contemporary records and may have been drawn in part from an antebellum novel by Caroline Lee Hentz. Other stories attached to the site include the 1914 murder of moonshiner Sylvester Hart and a headless wagon driver. Guided ghost walks are held near Halloween. None of the later sightings names a different person. They are the ones the legend supplies.
What is documented is a 1914 steel bridge, an 1837 fever death of Elizabeth Bellamy, the later suicide of her husband, and a local ghost story that was already circulating by 1890. The wedding-night fire is the story. The fever is on the records. The lights and the figure in white are the ones visitors report.
The 1914 Bellamy Bridge over the Chipola River, seen from the heritage trail.
Relevant links
- Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail (official) — the trail, the 1914 bridge, and the distinction between legend and the 1837 fever death
- Explore Southern History: The Ghost of Bellamy Bridge — Dale Cox’s account of the records versus the legend
- Haunted Places: Bellamy Bridge — the wedding-fire version and modern reports
- Florida Hikes: Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail — access and the structure