Van Sant's

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Sitting in a picture-book location, Van Sant’s Covered Bridge in Solebury Township is rumored to be haunted.

The county commissioners asked for a covered bridge to be built near Edward Van Sant’s farm in 1875 in Solebury Township over the Pidcock Creek. Like the other Bucks County bridges from that time period, the specifications called for mostly white oak construction, with white pine and hemlock for the roof. The bridge’s ends were to be painted with white. A bridge marker indicates it was built by C. Arnett and P.S. Naylor.

For years, there have been rumors that Van Sant’s bridge could be haunted. The bridge is allegedly a “cry baby bridge” where a young woman killed her child and then herself. Her cries, the story goes, still can be heard at night.

There is one known fatality at the bridge. On April 3, 1918, Edward C. Lewis and Charles Armstrong were driving a seven-ton trailer, water tank, and hay bailer over the bridge, when the floor collapsed from the weight. Lewis survived by clinging to the bridge’s siding, but Armstrong died when he became entangled with the wreckage. The bridge had been repaired in 1915. After the accident, the floor was rebuilt by S. D. Stringer.