COTTER BRIDGE

(RM Ruthven Bridge)

US Highway 62 over the White River

Status: Arch Bridge

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By <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Archedamian&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1" class="new" title="User:Archedamian (page does not exist)">Archedamian</a> - <span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

By <a href="//www.flickr.com/people/28155182@N06" class="extiw" title="flickruser:28155182@N06">Bryan McDonald</a> - <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Flickr" class="mw-redirect" CC BY-SA 2.0, Link


History

Previous to the bridge, the only way across the river was by ferry. The nearest bridge was 100 miles (160 kilometres) away in Branson, Missouri. Constantly changing water levels made the ferry crossing unreliable.

The town wanted a bridge as it would open up a new part of the Ozarks to tourism while boosting their economy. Judge RM Ruthven buried a feasibility report that would have resulted in the bridge being built elsewhere – hence a lot of people calling the bridge by his name – and President Coolidge signed it into existence in May of 1928.

The bridge was opened on November 11, 1930 but the town’s residents still wouldn’t use it – until the State Highway Dept threatened to pull all funding – because of the toll.

 

Paranormal Activity

There are 2 fatal accidents that are said to have happened on the bridge – one is verified; the other feels like an Urban Legend but, apparently, is known well locally.

The first is 2 men who working on the bridge’s upper span and fell to their deaths. The second was a young woman in the 1950’s who was chased onto the bridge by a pack of wild dogs – they caught her on the bridge and tore her apart.

Reported Activity: the apparition of a woman running on the bridge often followed by barking dogs; phantom footsteps – sometimes running – on the bridge; disembodied voices including conversations; phantom sounds of children playing beneath the bridge at night when there are no children present; light anomalies; electrical disturbances; strong feelings of eeriness and, curiously, the phantom crying of a baby.