The Ghost Bridge in the Jungle

Deep in the jungle of Côn Đảo in Vietnam, there is an unfinished bridged called Ma Thiên Lãnh Bridge also called The Ghost Bridge, both because of its dark origin as well as the lingering presence still seen.

The bridge was built by 300 prisoners from the Côn Đảo Prison during the French colonization of Vietnam. The Côn Đảo Prison was a prison that the French colonists used to imprison those thought to be especially dangerous to the colonial government. The prison was used from the 1800s until the end of the Vietnam war. A number of stories of torture and abuse comes from that prison, located on an island. And some of these unfortunate prisoners were made to build this Ghost Bridge in the middle of the jungle.

Death on the Bridge

History of Ma Thien Lanh bridge — **The Ghost Bridge:** Several reports about paranormal happenings and ghosts comes from this bridge that were built on the labour of prisoners.
Source: vetaucondao.vn

To build infrastructure on the island with the prison, they needed material. In 1930, French colonialists made the prisoners carry rocks to the Núi Chúa mountain to build this bridge. The purpose of the bridge was to make transportation of materials to Ong Dung Beach to be used as building the infrastructure of the Côn Đảo island. It is said that around 356 of the prisoners forced to build this bridge lost their life, either starving to death, poisonous drinking water, horrible abuse from the French or even the climate or the rugged terrain became too much for them.

However, in spite of how much effort that was made to build the bridge, it would never be completed. In August 1945 after the revolution, the work on the bridge was left as the French left Vietnam and only parts of the bridge were complete and stands today, now only standing as a reminder of the bloody labour the prisoners were forced to.

The Lingering Ghosts

Many encounters from the locals have been told of the paranormal kind. One villager that was drinking with his friend told about a man with long hair, white shirt and black trousers, watching him from a distance before suddenly disappearing.

A female villager saw a woman in a white dress at dawn, standing on the bridge at dawn, and as the villager told, she recognized the woman as a hungry ghost. Another female villager met the ghosts of two boys, none of them were wearing a shirt as they forced her to give them dessert.