Many states claim ownership to a Crybaby Bridge nestled somewhere along one of their back country roads, but Marylander’s know the original spans the muddied waters of the Patuxent connecting Prince Georges and Anne Arundel Counties. Originally constructed by Samuel Ogle in the mid-1700s to travel between his mansion in Collington and the capital in Annapolis, Governor’s Bridge is by far the oldest of its kind to bear the alias of Crybaby Bridge.
 

As legend has it, the daughter of local farmer had a baby out of wedlock and was cast out of her house by her pious and domineering father. Distraught, cold, and alone, she wandered the countryside until she came upon a bridge. As the cries of her hungry baby grew, the desperate girl’s tenuous grip on reality slipped, and in a fit of madness, she cast her child into the icy waters below. Immediately horrified by her unspeakable act, the girl jumped into the river in a futile attempt to rescue her child. Two days later her body was found by the riverside. The child’s never was.
 

On cold evenings, many have driven to the bridge and parked their cars in the middle of it. Waiting patiently and listening intently, they reported hearing the haunting cries of a baby rising above the murmur of the roiling waters below. Still others claimed to have seen a spectral lady walking along the riverbanks in search of her long lost child. I would suggest a visit for those who don’t believe in such nonsense, but the bridge has been closed to the public for quite some time, allegedly for structural reasons…