Heartbeat Bridge

The Heartbeat Bridge legend holds that years ago a woman was murdered near the bridge on Chair Factory Road and her killer threw her heart into the swamp below. Stopping a car engine at midnight on the bridge is said to produce the sound of a heartbeat — rhythmic thumping that reportedly grows louder and faster as if terrified, sometimes followed by a loud screeching noise and a pop.

Country 103.7 (a regional media outlet) has documented this as one of the most haunted roads in the South, citing Columbus County residents who describe the heartbeat phenomenon. Deep South Magazine (2024) independently lists Heartbeat Bridge among the South's ten most haunted roads, describing the bridge as crossing Monie Swamp via Chair Factory Road and noting that visitors report hearing a heartbeat when stopped on the bridge at night. The Carolinas Unknown paranormal research group — an established North Carolina ghost-research organization — has documented the legend from local sources, reporting that the bridge 'was named Heartbeat Bridge because years ago a murdered woman's heart was thrown into the swamp at the bridge and sounds of a beating heart can be heard there,' along with 'a loud screeching noise then a pop.' The sounds have been variously explained as pipe resonance, wildlife in the swamp, or road infrastructure, but no explanation has been definitively established.

HauntBound found no documentary evidence of a murder at this location — no newspaper account, no court record, and no historical society documentation. The legend is noted as a well-established piece of Columbus County local tradition presented here as folklore rather than documented history.