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FILE 045 · VOL VII · They Lied to Your Parents
A Town Saw Red Eyes for 13 Months. Then the Bridge Fell.
The warning is never the monster. The warning is what you do after you see it.
Based on: The Mothman and the Silver Bridge
Intake record
| Recovered from | Basement of a former state highway office, Charleston, West Virginia; an inspection logbook (1965) |
|---|---|
| Contents | Bridge inspection log (one page unsigned), a personal letter, a photograph of a bridge tower at night |
| Finder | Records clerk |
| Status | The log was transferred to the Archive after the records office was closed. |
Recovered file
Earl Ruckman inspected bridges for the state highway department. He was forty-one in 1965, steady, patient, and afraid of nothing he had ever met, which was exactly what you wanted in a man who climbed bridge towers for a living.
The Silver Bridge was his. He walked its deck twice a year. Once a year he climbed its towers to look at the eyebars where they joined the chains, because those joints were where trouble lived. There was no federal rule that said he had to. It was his own rule, taught to him by the man who trained him.
The rest of this file is sealed. The ending, the sources and the archivist's note unseal with the file.
Unseal File 045 ($2.99) · its volume · everything ($49.99)
Built on real, cited records. The stories are dramatized. Disclaimer · If you are in crisis in the U.S., call or text 988.