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The stories are Anne Arundel legend, passed down through generations - hair-raising reminders of life's cruelty that grow grislier with time.
There was the panicked teenage mother in the 1820s, the one who threw her crying baby into the Patuxent River, then leaped in to drown herself.
There were lynchings by the Klan, the hangings of horse thieves from the girders below, the young family in the 1940s that was swept over the rails by a speeding car, never to be seen alive again.
Those brave or crazy enough to visit Governor's Bridge, a rusty, one-lane span on a lonely stretch between Davidsonville and Bowie near the Prince George's County line, still tell of the infant who cries late at night, the sobbing girl who pushes the baby carriage, the sudden drops in temperature.
"I was there [on the bridge] all alone one warm night," wrote "Amy Marie" in a chat room in 2006. "I suddenly felt like someone was behind me, whispering in my ear. I felt the coldest air surround me. I nearly [soiled myself]."
Restless spirits from eons past? Figments of overactive imaginations? Beverly Litsinger has no doubt. "This is one of the most haunted spots in Maryland," she says.
Litsinger, the president of the Maryland Ghost and Spirit Association, has investigated tens of thousands of hauntings in the Mid-Atlantic region, from the Gettysburg battlefield to Annapolis taverns. As Halloween nears, she agrees to visit the spectral span, and it takes almost no time for her ghost-hunting gear to light up like the tunnel to paradise in "Poltergeist."
"Oh, we have company," says Litsinger, a soft-spoken, bespectacled woman in her 50s. "There are spirits right beside you. And they're full of emotion."
There on the narrow truss bridge, barren branches reach down from on high, interlacing with old scaffolding above. The Patuxent passes below, sweeping fallen leaves and twigs in silence to places unknown.
Over the next hour and a half, Litsinger proves a steady guide to the paranormal.
These are divining rods. Turns out the presence of ghosts, like that of hidden water, makes them spin, and as Litsinger holds one in each hand - and yes, the hands appear still - the rods leap into motion like merry-go-rounds at the carnival.
"There's a lot of somebodies here," she says calmly. "How many, I'm not sure."
A paranormal investigator's best tool, though, is her intuition. Ever since she was a girl growing up in Salisbury, she has had "the gift," she says - and in those days, it was usually inconvenient.
"I'd see people right in front of me that others didn't," she says. "I didn't get why I was the only one. [I'd think], 'What's wrong with you people?' I learned to keep my thoughts to myself for a long time."
She's sure her gift came from a great-grandmother who was a Nanticoke Indian.
It manifests itself in several ways. When she's near spirits, she says she feels as if someone is peering over her shoulder - a sensation she gets right away on the bridge.
She says if ghosts want to reveal themselves, they can, and to whatever degree they wish. A spirit's presence usually brings a chill, or if it's having strong feelings, a heat surge.
According to Litsinger, visually they can appear as "orbs" (darting spheres of light), ectoplasm (vague dark shapes) or in full-body form, visible either at the moment or later on film.
Litsinger says she often sees full-body representations - like the young man she recently encountered at Gettysburg, a Civil War soldier who asked her to give his wife a letter. (She had to inform him that he was dead, a report that caused him to burst into tears.)
There was the panicked teenage mother in the 1820s, the one who threw her crying baby into the Patuxent River, then leaped in to drown herself.
There were lynchings by the Klan, the hangings of horse thieves from the girders below, the young family in the 1940s that was swept over the rails by a speeding car, never to be seen alive again.
Those brave or crazy enough to visit Governor's Bridge, a rusty, one-lane span on a lonely stretch between Davidsonville and Bowie near the Prince George's County line, still tell of the infant who cries late at night, the sobbing girl who pushes the baby carriage, the sudden drops in temperature.
"I was there [on the bridge] all alone one warm night," wrote "Amy Marie" in a chat room in 2006. "I suddenly felt like someone was behind me, whispering in my ear. I felt the coldest air surround me. I nearly [soiled myself]."
Restless spirits from eons past? Figments of overactive imaginations? Beverly Litsinger has no doubt. "This is one of the most haunted spots in Maryland," she says.
Litsinger, the president of the Maryland Ghost and Spirit Association, has investigated tens of thousands of hauntings in the Mid-Atlantic region, from the Gettysburg battlefield to Annapolis taverns. As Halloween nears, she agrees to visit the spectral span, and it takes almost no time for her ghost-hunting gear to light up like the tunnel to paradise in "Poltergeist."
"Oh, we have company," says Litsinger, a soft-spoken, bespectacled woman in her 50s. "There are spirits right beside you. And they're full of emotion."
There on the narrow truss bridge, barren branches reach down from on high, interlacing with old scaffolding above. The Patuxent passes below, sweeping fallen leaves and twigs in silence to places unknown.
Over the next hour and a half, Litsinger proves a steady guide to the paranormal.
A near fall
A good ghost hunter always brings her kit. Litsinger's is a silver hard-shell case that contains a few electronic devices - a temperature gauge, an electromagnetic field detector, a camera, a sound recorder and a couple of hand-held wire whirligigs.These are divining rods. Turns out the presence of ghosts, like that of hidden water, makes them spin, and as Litsinger holds one in each hand - and yes, the hands appear still - the rods leap into motion like merry-go-rounds at the carnival.
"There's a lot of somebodies here," she says calmly. "How many, I'm not sure."
A paranormal investigator's best tool, though, is her intuition. Ever since she was a girl growing up in Salisbury, she has had "the gift," she says - and in those days, it was usually inconvenient.
"I'd see people right in front of me that others didn't," she says. "I didn't get why I was the only one. [I'd think], 'What's wrong with you people?' I learned to keep my thoughts to myself for a long time."
She's sure her gift came from a great-grandmother who was a Nanticoke Indian.
It manifests itself in several ways. When she's near spirits, she says she feels as if someone is peering over her shoulder - a sensation she gets right away on the bridge.
She says if ghosts want to reveal themselves, they can, and to whatever degree they wish. A spirit's presence usually brings a chill, or if it's having strong feelings, a heat surge.
According to Litsinger, visually they can appear as "orbs" (darting spheres of light), ectoplasm (vague dark shapes) or in full-body form, visible either at the moment or later on film.
Litsinger says she often sees full-body representations - like the young man she recently encountered at Gettysburg, a Civil War soldier who asked her to give his wife a letter. (She had to inform him that he was dead, a report that caused him to burst into tears.)
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