Suicide Bridge Restaurant - 6304 Suicide Bridge Rd - Hurlock, Maryland 21643 phone:410-943-4689

The Legend of Suicide Bridge

SECRETARY, Md. -- The first victim of Suicide Bridge was a postmaster from Hurlock, who shot himself and then fell into the water of Cabin Creek.

The second victim was a farmer who also shot himself and fell into the swirling waters of the Dorchester County Creek.

Next was a man who some say willfully dove off the bridge, while others say he met with foul play. Pete Moxey, a lifelong resident of the area, was eight or nine years old when it happened.

"It's the first one I remember. A fellow they called "Frog". He was black, short and stocky. They claimed he jumped off the bridge and hit his head on the piling. But the word was going around there was foul play in it. I don't know," the 60 year-old Mr. Moxey said.
He remembers that once the body was found, "they put him on a table over there in a picnic area and did an autopsy, right out in the open." Mr. Moxey, however, was sent home before the autopsy was performed.

The original bridge was a wooden structure built around 1888. The second bridge, also wooden and only one lane, was built around 1910. The third bridge which is also wooden but covered with asphalt, was built in 1967 and dedicated in January 1968. Local residents apparently have always called it Suicide Bridge. The current bridge was completly rebuilt and reopened in 2005.

Mr. Moxey said he was surprised at how quickly another suicide occurred after the third bridge was built.
"It was up for six months, then bingo, somebody went off," he said.

"I helped pull that guy out of the water… He had been a long-time employee at Continental Can in Hurlock and was just coming off a long vacation," Mr. Moxey said.

"Instead of going back to work, he drove here, parked his car and jumped off the bridge."
After rescuers located the body, Mr. Moxey said, the ropes got tangled and he got in his boat to help bring the body out. The body was placed on the dock.
"The blood soaked into the wood on the dock and it never washed away," said Mr. Moxey. "It was there for about five years. I tore it down and built another."
Another man, born and raised within a half of a mile of the bridge, moved away for many years, came back, parked his car by the foot of the bridge and shot himself.
"I don't think the bridge is jinxed. Maybe it's just the name that brings them here." Mr. Moxey said of the suicides.


In a more recent incident, Dave Nickerson, who at the time lived across the creek next to the bridge, was awakened one morning by calls of "Help… help."
Seeing a car parked on the bridge, he immediately jumped into his skiff and zoomed to where calls were coming from.
He pulled a woman from the icy water where she had apparently changed her mind about committing suicide. Nickerson immediately took her ashore, ran to her car, which was running and parked on the bridge and drove to the skiff.
When he tried to get the women into the warm car she replied, "I don't want to get the seats wets -- it's a new car!"