Old Alton Bridge

Texas · USA · Bridge

Park on the bridge, switch everything off, and sound the horn three times. The real story behind the name is worse than the legend.

Old Alton Bridge is an iron truss bridge of 1884 over Hickory Creek in Denton County, Texas, and it is known to everyone in north Texas as Goatman's Bridge.

The ritual is standard: park on the bridge, turn everything off, sound the horn three times.

The popular version has rituals performed here conjuring something half man and half goat.

The version told locally is different and belongs to the real history of this county. It concerns a Black farmer who kept goats and did well enough at it to advertise, and who is said to have been taken from his home by the Klan in 1938 and hanged from this bridge.

No record confirms that killing. What is documented is that the Klan was powerful in Denton County in that period and that lynchings of Black men in Texas went unrecorded and unprosecuted as a matter of routine.

The bridge is now a pedestrian crossing and is open.

FAQ

Wo befindet sich Old Alton Bridge?

Old Alton Bridge liegt in Texas, USA.