GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. — In rural Greenville County, South Carolina, you can find the Poinsett Bridge, a stone structure spanning 130 feet over the Little Gap Creek.
The bridge is a piece of American history--and it's also the subject of folklore and the unexplained, depending on who you talk to.
The Poinsett Bridge was built in 1820. It's on the original state road connecting Greenville to Asheville and it's the oldest bridge in South Carolina. In fact, it's believed to be the oldest such structure in the entire Southeastern United States.
"That's some pretty rock work when you get down where you can see the main part of it," said one man we found passing by.
And while the original plans were lost years ago, the South Carolina Department of Archives and History says the bridge was designed by Robert Mills, the South Carolina native who was also the architect of the Washington Monument. The structure includes a distinctive structure known as a gothic arch.
The bridge got its name from Joel Poinsett, a prominent South Carolina politician and diplomat in the first half of the 19th Century. (In case you were wondering, yes, he also gives his name to the poinsettia flower, which he saw and brought back samples of while serving as Minister to Mexico.)
At that time the bridge was built, the Sumter County resident was president of the South Carolina Board of Public Works. A marker at the site credits Poinsett with helping to organize and build the bridge.
For the locals, it's been an attraction ever since.
"It's peaceful, very peaceful," said one woman we saw at the bridge on the day we went out there. "Lot of old memories from my childhood people that are no longer with us."
Besides the beauty and wonder of this place are the stories of the unexplained. A lot of visitors report some kind of electronic interference here. it's something our camera crew experienced first-hand when part of their equipment would not properly operate during our visit.
And then there's the stories of strange lights and yes, even ghosts. The locals says this place is haunted.
"I've heard of people seeing an older woman with long black hair and then soldiers ands stuff like that," one woman told us.
"People have claimed to have seen some orbs and stuff heard some people talking out here in the middle of the night," said a man who sounded a bit skeptical. "So who knows? I haven't seen anything crazy."
Haunted or not, the bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. It's the centerpiece of the Poinsett Heritage Preserve. The site is owned and operated by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
The bridge is open year-round with no cost to visit.
