Suicide Bridge Investigation

Long gone and nearly forgotten, in 1894 a high bridge – 42 feet above the water – was erected as a sight-seeing bridge It was a four story bridge over Lincoln Park lagoon south of Fullerton and east of Lincoln Park Zoo. It connected Lincoln Park to the lakefront at the time when Lake Shore Drive was a carriage route rather than an expressway.

On a clear day, you could see the stockyards and Jackson Park from the bridge. It attracted plenty of weirdos – one elderly woman was known to go there daily to get as drunk as humanly possible. Another man would often go to whistle at the moon in a strange, eerie tone that scared the crap out of the cops. But it became most famous as a place to commit suicide. By 1900, kids around Chicago were superstitious about it, telling friends to “stay away from Suicide Bridge.”

No one knows how many people ended their lives with a leap from the bridge before it was closed in 1919, but it was probably between 50 and 100 (the number who came intending the jump, but didn’t (or survived) was estimated as being in the hundreds). It was so popular a destination for suicide that even people NOT seeking to die by drowning came to the bridge – one man hanged himself from the edge, and another went there to shoot himself.

In 1916, amateur movie-makers shot a chase scene on the bridge. The characters were to fall from the bridge, but a stunt man they hired refused to jump, saying the water below was too shallow. The amateur actors decided to do it themselves and both survived.

On December 8, 1897, a man named John Schwinen climbed onto the bridge and, in full view of about 100 children skating on the ice of the lagoon, jumped to his death. With a wild upward wave of his hands, he leapt far out into the air and fell head-first onto the ice.

Address: 1627 N. Stockton Dr., Chicago, IL 60614

Owner: Chicago Park District

Hauntings: In 1898, police officers who patrolled Lincoln Park at night had plenty of stories about running into ghosts while making their rounds. However, it doesn’t seem to have occurred to them to blame the fact that the park had been a cemetery in recent memory (and still had plenty of bodies buried below the ground). In fact, it was generally agreed that the ghosts were the unfortunates who had ended their life at Suicide Bridge.

During a GRS investigation of the bridge on June 29, 2013 and during a SB-7 Ghost Box experiment, on two different occasions the word, “Jump” was said in reference to questions asked.

The GRS investigated the former site of Suicide Bridge in Lincoln Park on May 19, 2022 and the team included: Paul Adams and Dale Kaczmarek

Equipment setup: Hand-held equipment such as a Phasma Box and digital recorders were used as well as a Samsung Galaxy S21 Slim Ultra for the ParaTek app.

Experiments performed: Two EVP sessions were conducted; one using the Phasma Box and the second with the ParaTek app.

Personal experiences:

Dale Kaczmarek: Our EVP session was conducted on a bench very close to where High Bridge was located. It was relatively quiet as per real people walking by. No actual contamination was picked up during our session.

The Phasma Box did call out my name during the first EVP session.

Evidence collected;

Dale Suicide.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session, the device suddenly blurted out, “Dale.”

Ninety Suicide.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session, a question was asked, “Do you know how many people lost their lives on the old bridge?” The device responded with, “Ninety.”

Oh my god.MP4 - while conducting a Phasma Box session, the device said, “Oh my god.”

Words or phrases spoken by the Phasma Box: Dale & oh my god; ParaTek app – Emily, opening, heavy, fell, understand, barn, hat, party, sadness, across, height, phrase, zero, ninety, X, details, witch, to her, inches, Daniel, school, cover, nine, torture, rage, James, Joe, not, use, team, branded, itself, clever, usual, highway, opium, vanish, helpful, react, fear me, be friends & ran.

Conclusions: There were some very interesting random words that came through the ParaTek app like fell, sadness and barn. Fell is interesting as people either fell or jumped from the bridge to their deaths. Sadness would be a feeling around this area due to all the suicides. Barn was significant as we were almost directly across from the Farm in the Zoo which has a very large barn. Dr. Lester Fisher, former director of the Lincoln Park Zoo, was contacted by employees that were digging the foundation for this building and came across skeletal remains. Dr. Fisher called the Chicago Police several times and they never responded to the call, so he ordered the construction crew to simply pour cement over the remains. They are still interred in the barn where thousands of visitors walk when visiting that area.

It would have been nice to investigate more of this area including the baseball diamonds where thousands of bodies still remain. We couldn’t accomplish that due to several nighttime baseball games that were in progress. The zoo itself has several haunted spots that were not available to us during our visit here.