Haunted is a strong word, but
something did feel strange even in
broad daylight as we approached the
odd granite bunker carved high into
the riverbluff on the eastern end of the
Harahan and Frisco Bridges.

Why should this area be haunted?
There are dozens of reasons!

The whole bluff occupies ground long
considered sacred by the Chickasaw
Indians and has been witness to more
than its share of the dark side, ranging
from wholesale slave trading to river
pirate butchery.

The riverbluff at the bridges' Memphis
approach is where Fort Pickering once
stood, a strategic fortification and trading
post built in the mid-1700s and still in
active use over 100 years later during
the Civil War.

One slave dealer located nearby during
the mid-1800s advertised a "clean jail
capable of containing 300 likely young
slaves." That slave dealer's name was
Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was to
become the bloodiest general of the
Confederacy and founder of the KKK.

In this same area of Memphis, four
years after the civil war, a racial
incident turned into a riot that

lasted 3 days, and caused the deaths
of more than 60 people by some
accounts.

In the late 1800s this was ground zero
for the dreaded Yellow Fever epidemic
that bankrupted the city and claimed
over 200 Memphians a day at its worst.

In more modern times, 23 workers died
erecting the Harahan, including 9 men
smothered in the wet cement of one of
the support piers.

Even the man for whom the bridge is
named died an ironic and untimely
death. James T. Harahan's car was
hit by a train!

During the decade surrounding the
Great Depression over 70 desperate
souls used the bridges to jump to a
watery death. Many were never found.

The Strange Room was sealed after an
incident in 1972 when 14 old sticks of
deteriorating dynamite and blasting
caps were found by railroad agents. No
explanation was ever found for how the
ancient explosives got there or why.

No doubt about it, this place seems to
be charged with... with... Something.
And it may very well have shown itself
in the pictures I took below...

These are the pictures that make
my hair stand on end... At the time I felt
unreasonably paranoid as I perched
uneasily outside the sledge hammered
opening, leaned the camera just inside
the gloom and snapped the two shots
you see above. I have absolutely no
explanation for the sparkles, flashes,
globes, and floaters that can be seen,
or for the difference in their density
since the two pictures were taken less
than 15 seconds apart from slightly
different angles (right, then left).

There are stairs that go nowhere(!)
visible in the left shot. An archway
into the southern room is visible
in both shots. The orange object
hanging in the left picture is an old
conduit and light bulb fixture.

I honestly believe I see MUCH more than
"just a room" in these pictures, but beyond
those sparse observations I leave the rest
to your imagination. I have not edited the
pictures or added any special effects to
produce the results you see visible here.

Do *you* see anything unusual?

At this point I am torn between a vague
feeling I should stay away from this place
and an intense desire to explore and know
more about the very Strange Room. If we
go back, I'll take cameras and try to
document whatever we find.

Wish me luck or
Tell me why I shouldn't go back

UPDATE 1: See Infrared Video Footage
shot inside the doorway pictured above!

UPDATE 2: As of Spring, 2000 the
opening in the doorway has been bolted
& sealed by a huge steel plate! The
pictures on this Website may be all we'll
ever get to see of the Haunted Room.