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.
295 comments on this haunted house. Share your story »
295 Comments |
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Ryan says: |
April 6, 2008, 10:46 pm |
If you go to the Forty Acre Rock in South Carolina, there’s a CryBaby Bridge near there. The story is that a mother and hear baby was driving home one day. When she was crossing the bridge, she lost control and both her and her baby was thrown out of the car. The mother, worried for her baby, started to search for her baby who was crying. But she couldn’t find it, no matter how hard she looked. They say now if you go there at night you will hear the baby crying. Also, if you leave there and go down the road a bit in your car, then you’ll find a orange baracade on the side of the road. If you park there, then go down the trail, there’ll be a old family cemetary there. It’s really cool.
Ryan says: |
April 6, 2008, 11:00 pm |
p.s. the bridge is connected to the old Highway 106. And I stress old, since the highway was from the 1920’s, and the bridge is from 1926. The story of the mother and her baby is from the 1940’s and the cemetary is from the 1700’s. Also, if you do go there, pay attention to the yellow lines on the road. Cause if you look at it, the lines are farther apart then they are now. Back in the old days, they painted the lines far apart. There’s your random information of the day.
ryan says: |
April 9, 2008, 12:49 pm |
http://www.edgefielddaily.com/edgefield031908_1.html
theres a ghost picture of me outside the church near the crybaby bridge in Edgefield, SC for those of you who wanted to see it.
Michelle says: |
April 13, 2008, 1:01 am |
I use to go out to cry baby bridge in Olathe, KS back 23 years ago. It is right by Olathe Lake but it isnt the new bridge. It is to the north through what is a farmers field. The last time I was out there he was waiting with a gun sitting in his lawn chair telling all of us to get off his property. Before that the only thing I ever saw was a deer that ran through the creek and freaked the heck out me and we have heard many bobcat in the area which can sound a lot like a crying baby or a screaming woman. One time when I was taking my friends out there, right before the bridge my friend’s care started filling with smoke through the vents and we lost our lights but the car was still running so we drove back to Olathe full speed with no lights totally freaking ourselves out. As soon as we hit 7 hwy the lights came back on and worked fine the rest of the time. That car always had strange problems but that time sure got our hearts racing lol.
miranda says: |
May 1, 2008, 3:44 pm |
cry baby bridge> how could anybody want to kill their baby that is just so cruel?
Aundreaa says: |
May 15, 2008, 11:38 pm |
My cheering caoch did this it really is real.
I will want to try this.
Do you guys think I should?
Milena says: |
May 26, 2008, 7:40 pm |
i haven’t been there but by what all u said its probably really scary!
Susannah says: |
June 7, 2008, 4:08 pm |
From what I heard, the baby was actually thrown off by it’s unwed teenage mother who also jumped off..
Kelly says: |
June 18, 2008, 2:22 pm |
I really need directions to this place so I can see if this is really real. I do research on ghosts, and I want to see if actually will happen.
jenny says: |
June 20, 2008, 2:12 pm |
shitt!! thats scary !!
this is i think tha best scary baby story i have ever heard . =D
Patrick Rivers says: |
June 24, 2008, 2:08 am |
Hey just got back from cry baby bridge and I do admit that its pretty scary. And the thing about the scratches on your car totally true. The supposed crying you hear may have an explanation but thats only a part of it check it out for yourself sounds like everyone had a differnt experience. It was really interesting.
Austin says: |
June 26, 2008, 3:57 pm |
I’ve seen this…it is true and actually, kinda freaky and you also forgot that you car won’t start sometimes till morning….
josh says: |
June 28, 2008, 11:16 pm |
hey….i live in citronelle, like 5 minuets away from kali oka rd. and the stories are true. there is a baby crying at night and you can see ppl at the plantation. there also made a movie called dead birds. so if yall really wanna be freaked out, go to the bridge.
BCH says: |
July 6, 2008, 1:43 pm |
i like baby powder
))
wink wink.
my teacher once applied it to
my grandfathers rump.
that was back in the day.
it a sad sad sad story.
the baby powder exploded and got in her eye. then she fell back and hit her head like in degrassi. as she got up she raped my poor grandfather. which was homeless at the time. thats when she got prego. thats why we have hayes
)))
she now suffers a terrible disease called wrinklygonoriabuttblossumaphobia disease
brady says: |
July 7, 2008, 11:29 pm |
Ok there is a crybaby bridge in locust fork alabama, me and my friends went on it tonight, nothing happened,
The story i heard is that ” The bridge would always flood over when it rained, it was a stormy night and a mother and her baby had to go over the bridge to get home, the bridge was sumerged but she thought if she gunned it over the bridge they would make it, she was wrong, they drifted away and the car and bodys were found weeks later. If you go there today and park your car and kill the egnition and wait… you will hear the baby crying, also if you but a candy bar on the bridge drive away come back the opposite direction you came a baby bite will be taken out”
aaron says: |
July 16, 2008, 1:48 pm |
this is all gay this story is fake.ive been their and the crying is trees branches rubbing and the car is homeless cats they scratched my damn car u all need to try disproving ****.
lake says: |
July 20, 2008, 8:21 pm |
hey yall. there is one cry baby bridge in saraland. here where it is. i am not formillare with the place cause i just move to saraland if you know where spanish trace is its next to the naborhood. all i know is a girl and a baby were driving and the car flip into the creek and the babny died but the woman survise i think. my mom told me that. im going to try it out since i can walk right up to it do yall know if dogs can hear the baby if they cry?? my dog always bark at nite at something. dogs can hear better than hum ans so i think that y she bark. it is spooky. on halloween i c if i can scar my cousin.
Abby says: |
July 23, 2008, 11:30 am |
I went to this bridge several times as a child. The legend that we heard is that a couple was so frustrated with their new child, since it wouldn’t stop crying. They became fed up and threw it over the bridge. It’s quite frightening. There is a lot of trash in there, so the “crying” could just be the wind going through it, but we saw a baby carriage in there once.
Also, the plantation down the road is one of the scariest places I’ve been to in my life. Someone does live there; lights were on when we went. The road coming back is supposedly haunted by old slaves of the plantation, and I swear I saw someone in a tree above the road. The driver, my friend’s dad, must have saw it too because he gunned it after I said something. Just don’t trespass onto the plantation.
William P. says: |
July 25, 2008, 10:44 pm |
I am from Mobile, Al. I am 35 years old. I have heard ghost stories about crybaby bridge ever since I can remember! I have heard to many stories from people I know, and relatives who have had actual ghostly encounters there, for it not to be true. I have only been across the bridge a couple of time in my life, it was daytime and nothing happened. The stories I heard about the babypowder goes like this: You stop your car in the middle of the bridge,get out and sprinkle the powder on your car, bumper to bumper. Get back in the car and try to start it. Something goes wrong with the electrical system, it may or maynot start, but your lights will go haywire. But you might wind up having to get out to push the car off the bridge to get it to start. You will see the baby’s hand and footprints where it climbed onto the car. I have heard others say you can turn the car off, put it in nuetral, and it will “mysteriously” roll to the end off the bridge. I have heard of the very large slave ghost as well. Before I started this post, I called an aunt of mine to see what she knew,and she told me that my uncles took here there once when she was a child, she didn’t remeber everything but she did however say that she saw strange lights, and was scared out off her mind. I do think that it is highly possible that crybaby brige on Kali-Oka Rd is haunted. I have heard to many stories from friends and relatives for it not to be.
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Ashley says:
April 4, 2008, 11:51 am
There is also a cry baby bridge in Anderson IN…..I was extremely confused when I found this site. It’s a completely different story. A mother drowned her daughter and the body was never recovered. If you turn your car off on the bridge you can here the cries and whimpers, and many a times going out there we have had trouble starting the car. I have heard this from others visiting too. The car won’t start.