Caroleen Bridge (Second Broad River)

The Caroleen Bridge carries one of the most recognizable ghost archetypes in Appalachian folklore: the hitchhiker who vanishes after crossing a bridge. According to local tradition documented in Clint Tuttle's 'Rutherford County Haunts: Legends and Ghost Stories of our County' (October 2024) and in regional sources, two elderly sisters who lived a short distance from the bridge were killed when their vehicle went off the side into the river below. The precise circumstances vary between tellings — one account describes a thunderstorm in 1943 during which a truck ran the sisters off the road; another places the accident in 1995 with different details. Both sisters reportedly died in the crash.

The legend holds that on rainy nights the apparitions of the two women appear walking along the road near the bridge in the direction of their former home. Drivers who stop to offer them a ride report the women accepting and climbing into the back seat, only to disappear without a trace the moment the car crosses to the other side of the bridge.

Tuttle, a school resource officer at the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department, compiled over 40 Rutherford County ghost stories with research tying accounts to newspaper records from the period of connected events; the book is stocked at local library branches and was covered by The Digital Courier (the Forest City / Rutherford County local newspaper). The conflicting dates (1943 vs. 1995) and absence of named individuals are consistent with long oral folkloric transmission — a characteristic Tuttle notes across several Rutherford County legends. The legend is presented here as documented Rutherford County regional folklore.