Real Haunted House
Cry Baby Bridge & Kali Oka
Saraland, Alabama
By Robin Wright
Take a turn off of Kali Oka Road in Saraland, Alabama, go carefully around Dead Man’s Curve (so named for the numerous fatal car accidents) and you will be heading towards Cry Baby Bridge and the Kali Oka Plantation. The plantation may look familiar to independent film buffs as it was used as the location for the horror film “Dead Birds,” where a mix of demonology and voodoo create a horrible place to stay the night in post-Civil War Alabama. There is an eerie aura around the plantation house and the smaller house that was once the slaves’ quarters. Some have said they have seen a woman in white lighting candles in a window. Others have spotted a hulking African American man, believed to have once been a slave on the plantation, walking the Kali Oka Road. These two ghosts, it has been said, are the reason you can hear a baby cry at night on the bridge just down the road.
The woman was the mistress of the plantation house, and her husband was an abusive, cold-hearted master. The giant was a slave and the Mistress’s lover. One night, the master of the house followed his wife as she entered the slaves’ quarters just behind the plantation house. He caught them in a lovers’ embrace, pulled them apart and at knife-point, forced the slave to a tree where he was chained up. Both of his hands were cut off for daring to touch the master’s wife, and he was left to die as a warning to others. Afterwards, the mistress of the house discovered she was pregnant. According to local tradition, she delivered a baby boy in the woods and drowned him in the nearby creek, where Cry Baby Bridge crosses today. Now, they say, one can hear the baby cry as his poor, innocent body touches the cold, running water in a constant repetition of his mother’s desperate betrayal. The slave still walks the road, looking for the son he’ll never know on the mortal plane.
But there is another version of the story, too…
Some believe the Master actually showed favoritism towards his behemoth slave. After the master’s death, however, the wife was the one who tied him up to the tree because she hated him so much. Insanely jealous, she supposedly left him tied to the tree in front of the house so that she could watch as he died a slow death.
Cry Baby Bridge also has multiple legends as to why one can hear a baby cry when you cross it at night. Some say a bunch of kids were playing on the bridge when they knocked a boy into the creek, where he downed. There are a few versions that a woman and her baby had a tragic accident. In some versions, she escapes and doesn’t even try to save the baby, in others, both she and the baby die. Those who follow logic claim that the sound is actually the wind blowing across the pipes that lay beneath the bridge, but that does not explain why cars have so much trouble crossing the bridge at night. Cars will stall, lights will go haywire, and some have even reported that their cars have moved from one end of the bridge to the other without any earthly aid.
Some have tried to get physical proof of the bridge’s haunting by sprinkling baby powder on a car from bumper to bumper. Wait inside the car for a few minutes, then go out and look. Some say that you will see a toddler’s hand and footprints. Another, much more satisfying twist on this (some have suggested) is to send a passenger out to sprinkle the car with baby powder. When they get out, drive away, leaving them alone in the dark to experience the bridge for themselves for a few frightening minutes. But we would never suggest such shenanigans….
No one knows which, if any, of the stories are true. Everyone does agree, however, that there is something definitely otherworldly in this area of Alabama. The plantation house has been relatively recently purchased and renovated by a family who do not seem bothered by the ghosts that haunt Kali Oka Road.
309 comments on this haunted house. Share your story »
309 Comments |
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apryl says: |
September 23, 2007, 11:21 am |
to get to cry baby bridge you get on 280 and go towards home depot you take a left/right onto the road.. you’ll pass 2 neighborhoods you keep going straight and it with be about a mile and a half till you come to a dirt road. You go straight down the road and there will be a bridge with a bunch of grafitti(sp) on it. it has a lot of holes in it. But it is a really pretty bridge. Me and my friends go swimming there a lot and nothings really happened. We only had one weird experiance. We went there at about 11 one night and heard a bunch of rumbling in the trees and a loud scream but we were drunk so we just laughed it off and then we saw someone or somthing just sitting on the edge of the river. We went down to see what or who is was and it was gone. it could have just been the alcohol but i think it was a ghost.
Ashley says: |
October 3, 2007, 8:44 pm |
I have been here.This is so true.We have been here plenty times!
Nelly says: |
October 4, 2007, 5:06 pm |
Ok there are major fools out there who just want to be heard and that’s sad. I didn’t know there were so many Cry Baby Bridge’s. Where exactly is the one in Alabama? and i’ve been trying to look for good true websites with true ghost stories…any suggestions?
steve says: |
October 7, 2007, 1:55 am |
cry baby is NOT REAL.theres is a piece of pvc pipe that goes along the side of the bridge that is open on either end so when the wind blows a sound that sounds like a baby crying I LIVE IN SARALAND
Madison says: |
October 9, 2007, 6:45 pm |
at camp we were talking about scarey places and someone said this is what happened…….
a man told his wife that he didnt want her and the baby so he would either kill her or she would have to go and kill the baby she picked to kill the baby she took the baby to the bridge and told she loved her and bla bla bla what ever she wanted to say and the she threw the baby of the bridge and watched it go down the river crying thats were they got the name “Cry Baby Bridge” from.
P.S people say the baby was a girl named isabella and if you go to the bridge between 1-1:30 am you can here the baby and mother crying
michalla garcia says: |
October 17, 2007, 7:52 pm |
DUDE!!! that is so cool! now i want to go to that bridge and see if that happends!! if i go there and put that babby powder stuff on the bridge and i dont see any foot steps….. IM GOING TO BE MAD AS H**L!!
KINSEY says: |
October 22, 2007, 1:49 pm |
COULD SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE DIRECTIONS FOR THE ONE ON HWY. 73 IN MONTEVALLO, AL ON CEMETARY RD. THERE’S A HOUSE BEFORE THE BRIDGE IN A PASTURE THAT’S ALSO HAUNTED, SO IT’S LIKE KILING 2 BIRDS WITH 1 STONE.
Princezz says: |
October 23, 2007, 7:05 pm |
i ive been livin in Alabama almost forever.. ive never heard of the crybaby bridge.. and i stay right next to Saraland.. and if you all want to know any directions to Saraland then please refer to Google.com.. there is a church and WalMart right next to the exit while entering Saraland, please use those clues thanks!! (^_^)
cindy says: |
October 25, 2007, 3:37 pm |
I know about the one on Hwy 73. If you’re going to cry baby bridge you need to stop by the house. the porch light will constantly blink but if you go on the porch you will notice that there is no bulb in the socket. to get the full effect you must go inside the house shut the door and stand there in the dark and wait. if you wait long enough you will hear screaming and glass breaking. have fun.
Hokeyfan says: |
October 28, 2007, 2:37 pm |
Why can’t anyone give specific directions for this alleged haunting spot?
melissa says: |
October 28, 2007, 6:35 pm |
i live in saraland and the crybaby bridge thig is a lie. it is stupid and iv been like 5 times and we have never heard a baby crying so i wouldnt waste my time
amber says: |
October 29, 2007, 12:23 am |
to the people who are dogging “cry baby bridge” … you looked it up so shut up…
Nicole says: |
October 29, 2007, 11:01 am |
I live in Mobile, AL and I have been to crybaby bridge in Saraland twice. The first time we saw nothing! But the second time we all got out of the car and walked to the bridge and got real quite and off in the distance we heard a baby crying. And the real story behind it is that the family that live in the Plantation were going over the bridge when it was a wooden bridge and yes it has been replaced but the creek is the same. Anyway the horse got spooked and the carriage went over and the mother and father lived but the baby did not survive. Her spirit is said to still be there searching for her parents. I have never heard of the baby powder thing though. I hope this helps!
KINSEY says: |
October 29, 2007, 2:56 pm |
JUST FOUND OUT THE CRYBABY BRIDGE ON HWY. 73 IS ****. AND TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY, SOMEBODY BURNED THE HOUSE DOWN WITH THE BLINKING LIGHTS. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE THE CRYBABY BRIDGE IS IN WEST BLOCTON WITH SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS?
Ben Norris says: |
October 29, 2007, 10:11 pm |
im tellling everybody right now the story is not real i live 5 min. from the bridge ive tried it all nothing happens its just a story to scare the kids
Caitlin says: |
October 31, 2007, 12:06 pm |
Alight, I live in this place, and it is a Baby Ruth candy bar on the hood of your car. The baby should take it or open it and take a bite.
girish says: |
October 31, 2007, 3:14 pm |
i am in india so not possible to come there.
Lauren and Jessica says: |
November 18, 2007, 1:48 pm |
We went to cry baby bridge in saraland last night. It was 1:09 am when we got there. We stoped on the bridge and turned our truck off to see if we could really hear the baby cryin but we wern’t far enough on the bridge, so we went to crank the truck back up to move it up and it would not crank! Nothing would work on the truck. We all got out and started pushing it off. We got it off the bridge and we tried to get it to start for an hour, and it still would not start. We tried to stop cars as they went by and none of them would stop.
tara says: |
November 26, 2007, 8:28 pm |
i think thats kinda sad. and not really something i would go out of my way to hear. I got a cry baby at home. my husband!!! I think the reason why she could not “crank” her truck is b/c she left the lights on or the radio or something. Not b/c the cry baby messed with it. If you want to see something bad enough you will. It’s called the power of suggestion.
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Susan says:
September 19, 2007, 9:50 am
This is the Cry Baby Hollow that I grew up knowing about and went to several times when I was a teenager in the late 1980’s. Nothing ever happened while I was there. The quote below is from the Shadowlands website.
“Decatur,Alabama – Crybaby Hollow – A long, narrow, dark road off of hwy 31 will bring you to an 8ft long bridge with no rails that is said to be haunted by the spirit of a crying baby. If you park on the bridge and put your car in neutral your car will either rock back and forth like mine has or be pushed forward. Small handprints have been left on the cars afterwards.”