Haunted Sarasota- The Ghost Bridge at Pinecraft

 

 

 

The Ghost Bridge of Pinecraft, which stretches quietly over Phillippi Creek in Sarasota, looks unassuming at first glance, but it carries a reputation as one of the city’s most haunted sites. Some hundred years ago, an Amish family moved from Pennsylvania to Sarasota to establish a celery farm. Every week the eldest son, Amos, would load a train car full of celery and accompany it to its destination. On one such trip, he caught the gaze of a beautiful young girl hanging laundry on her family’s farm just north of the Phillippi Creek rail bridge. Her name was Ingrid, and the two soon fell in love with all the fondness of their true hearts. Because a relationship between an Amish boy and an English girl was strictly forbidden, they began secretly meeting beneath the bridge, where they could be alone.

 

One evening, as Amos prepared to meet Ingrid, his father became suspicious and forbade him to leave the house. Ingrid, waiting for him, strolled back and forth along the shore of the creek, gathering a bouquet of wild irises. She lost her footing, fell into the creek, tore her dress, and cut her hand. She discarded her wet clothing in the water and hurried home to tend her wound, leaving the bouquet bloodied on the shore. When Amos’s father finally fell asleep, Amos slipped away and rushed to the bridge. There he found Ingrid’s torn dress floating in the creek and the blood-soaked irises scattered on the bank. As he searched frantically with his lantern, the fiery eyes of an alligator glowed in the water, convincing him that his beloved had met a terrible fate. Stricken with grief, Amos climbed onto the bridge, walked the iron rail onto a wooden plank, and threw himself into the darkness below on the southern shore.

 

The next morning, Ingrid returned, only to see Amos’s lifeless body across the creek. Overcome with sorrow, she threw herself from the bridge into the water, ending her life on the northern side. But their tragic story did not end with death. Since that fateful night, the restless spirits of Amos and Ingrid have haunted the Ghost Bridge, forever searching for one another but unable to leave the places where they perished—Amos bound to the south shore, Ingrid to the north. Locals whisper that from time to time, they mistake innocent passersby for each other, dragging the living into the creek in their desperate attempts to reunite.

 

For generations, people have reported strange encounters at the bridge—phantom footsteps, whispers on the water, sudden cold chills, and fleeting visions of figures in Amish garb or white dresses disappearing into the night. What began as a tale of forbidden love has become one of Sarasota’s most chilling legends, a story passed down as both a warning and a haunting reminder that not all love stories find their peace.