The Ghost Car

Before the beautiful Ravenel Bridge was completed in 2005, there was another bridge connecting Mt. Pleasant and Charleston - the Cooper River Bridge.

There is a strange paranormal happening that occurs on the new bridge, particularly at night, and especially when it is very foggy.

On February 24, 1946, a damaged freighter ship called the Nicaragua Victory made a blundering error by pulling up its anchors when the engines were not fired up. The ship floated sideways into the Cooper bridge.

As this happened, three vehicles were crossing the 270ft high structure. The car in front barely made it away as massive sections of the road began to collapse in the rear view. A mail truck in the back of the bridge was able to see the mayhem and U-turn - just in time.

The third car - and the family of five therein - was not so lucky.

A green Oldsmobile from 1940. Elmer Lawson, the driver; Evelyn Lawson, his wife; Elmer’s elderly mother, Rose; his son Robert, 7; his daughter Diane, 2. They were returning Westward after a lovely beach vacation on Sullivan’s Island.

The bridge began shaking violently as pieces progressively broke away, pummeling the freighter ship below. Apparently, if Elmer had floored it, he and his family may have survived. Instead, he stopped the car. Soon, the 100ft section of bridge holding them up literally dropped beneath them, and the car plummeted into the freezing Cooper River.

Horrifying, paranormal happenings began occurring almost immediately after the accident.

A few days after the collapse, as the bridge was being repaired, a construction worker named Marshall Cleveland was working high above a pit of fresh concrete as it was being poured. A violent gust of wind blew him headfirst into the deep, wet deathtrap. He was unable to get out, sinking down into the murky quicksand. The logistics of the bridge repair made it impossible to recover his corpse. He remained frozen inside the Cooper bridge as long as it stood.

The Lawson vehicle was not pulled out of the water until March 19, 1946. All five bloated bodies were still inside, eaten away by fish, crabs, and other hungry sea creatures.

Since that time, something frightening has been happening on the Ravenel bridge. Late on foggy nights, a pristine, green, 1940 Oldsmobile ascends the bridge. Those who pull up next to it see a stoic family inside, white as snow, dressed in 1940’s attire. The father, Elmer, looks ahead with an empty, sad expression. His mother, Rose, stares at you from the rear passenger side window. Two year old Diane is on her lap. They say Rose’ eyes are sunken in, and her gaze drains the hope from your soul.

The vehicle never makes it past the pinnacle of the bridge - it always inexplicably disappears into the fog.

Learn more about the haunted history of Charleston on one of our exciting ghost tours!