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Situated at Colorado Street, Pasadena, the 144-foot high Colorado Street Bridge is an impressive crossing in Southern California which rests on the original Route 66, its graceful structure a framework of exotic curves and seemingly artistic supports. Despite its image of romance and beauty, this bridge is known for a number of suicides which have occurred since 1913 when the bridge was completed.
Six years after the construction the first suicide took place, and it is now estimated that more than one-hundred people have plummeted to their deaths from the heights, although it has been argued that the figure is closer to two-hundred. Many of these suicides are blamed on the Great Depression of the 1930s which left many local folk so distraught that the only way they could exit the gray times was to end their life.
Researchers who've investigated the bridge claim that many people have been lured to their deaths by a strange specter, a ghost of a construction worker who allegedly fell to his death six months before the structure was finished. At the time no one was sure about the incident because the worker was said to have plummeted into a concrete pit used to support one of the pillars of the bridge. His body was never found.
Many claim that such an apparition is mere spook story as to explain as to why so many people have died on the bridge, but believers say that every time the ghost is present the street lights turn blue!
Whether some supernatural force loiters around what has become known as Suicide Bridge we'll never know, it's unlikely the bridge will ever give up the ghost or its grim nickname as the bodies continue to leap from the crossing.
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Concerning the Colorado Street bridge in Pasadena and the question on whether it is haunted or not? I will give you my experience. On Thursday, October 21, 2008 after taking my brother for a doctor's appointment, I was returning home from Glendale going east towards Pasadena. It was about 12:30 in the afternoon, and a warm day. I saw a man, average height, all dressed in black wearing an overcoat around 250 lbs. and I judged him to be about 65 due to his built. I thought he was overdressed for it was over 90 degrees outside. He had a bounce to his step as he was in a hurry. He skipped down the bridge stairs. All the while he was looking for something like change or perhaps a key. I saw his hands first as he manipulated the pile of stuff cupped in his left palm. He was searching with agility. I then happened to look up to see his face, there was none, no eyes, no nose, no mouth, just an ashen gray/tan haze where the head and the features would have been. I thought he had a beard but then I can't be certain for that too was part of the haziness which extended down his chest. It all happened so quickly and I was wondering if I was suffering from some sort of vision problem. But how was it that I could see his hands so clearly and not his face? I wanted to turn back and look again for I couldn't believe my eyes, but once riding on the bridge it is a one way street and it is impossible to turn back. It has really bothered me and thought I would share the experience. I do believe this bridge is haunted, and would like to know if anyone else has seen this man all dressed in black?