In 1929, Charleston became home to the fifth-longest bridge in the world with the building of a superstructure that spanned two wide waterways, Cooper River and Town Creek. At 2.71 miles long and 150 feet above the water, the bridge cut a beautifully intricate silhouette in the moonlight.
The John P. Grace Memorial Bridge, also known as the Cooper River Bridge, became a great convenience and a cherished landmark for area residents.
In February 1946, an enormous ship was anchored in Charleston Harbor, near the bridge. The Nicaragua Victory was a hulking ten thousand tons and not easy to maneuver.
One Sunday afternoon, the crew apparently misunderstood the captain’s order to remove the slack from the anchor chains. Instead, they pulled the anchors up, allowing the monstrous freighter to drift.
Dorothy and Bill Clapper could not have known they were on a fatal path when they steered their green Chevrolet onto the Cooper River Bridge. The young couple had had a pleasant Sunday at the beach on the Isle of Palms and had enjoyed watching one-year-old Bill Jr. play in the sand. As the Clappers drove over the bridge, they did not notice the freighter plowing toward them. And, apparently, neither did the Lawson family.
Who knows what was in Elmer Lawson’s mind as he decided to speed up on the Cooper River Bridge?
The thirty-seven-year-old father’s green Oldsmobile was packed. Along for the trip were his wife, thirty-year-old Evelyn; his mother, sixty-year-old Rose; and his two small children. Robert was seven years old, and little Diana, only three.
As they reached the arch of the bridge, Elmer gave the pedal a little extra gas, and their car passed the Clapper family’s vehicle. Dorothy glanced up to see the Lawson youngsters waving as they passed.
Why was Elmer in such a hurry?
We will never know. His simple decision to pass another car sentenced him and his family to a watery grave. Just after he overtook the Clappers, the runaway ship slammed into the bridge.
A 240-foot section of the bridge collapsed on impact, and the Lawson car shot off the road and plummeted to the river below.
The Clappers braked in the nick of time.
In a 2005 interview with Tony Bartlelme of Charleston’s Post and Courier, Dorothy Clapper recalled the pivotal moment when the Law-sons passed them. “I told Bill that if that car hadn’t passed us, we could have been the ones that drove off the bridge. …”
The newspaper also quoted Jesse Morillo, who was on board the ship. “I couldn’t believe my eyes,” he said. “When we hit the first section, it collapsed like a child’s Erector Set. And we didn’t slow down.” As the car fell, he was horrified at the sight of two small children, their hands pressed against the windows.
The Lawson family was entombed in their car for days before their bodies were recovered.
Six months later, the bridge was repaired, and people tried to put the tragedy out of their minds as they traveled over it. While most succeeded, a few cannot forget, because as they traversed the Cooper River Bridge, they found themselves side by side with a ghost car ridden in by the dead.
According to the guides of the Haunted Charleston Walking Tour, there has been more than one sighting of the ill-fated Oldsmobile.
One family of witnesses was headed home from an outing on a February day when they drove onto the bridge. They noticed an odd, out-of-date, green Oldsmobile ahead of them. The car kept starting and stopping, so the driver decided to pass the strange car. As they began to pass, they were startled by a shocking image.
Inside the vehicle was a lifeless family, dressed in 1940s fashion. In the front seat were a man and woman, with glazed and sunken eyes. The grandmother and two pale limp children sat in the back.
The terrified driver slammed on his brakes and allowed the ghostly car to pass him. It drove ahead and disappeared.
Is the Lawson family still trying to make it over the bridge?
Why does the car hesitate, stopping and starting so erratically? Is poor Elmer trying to relive that crucial moment that sent his family plummeting to their graves? Interestingly, he seemed to make the same decision he did on that black Sunday, when he passed the car of the startled family.
Let us hope that the souls of these poor folks have moved on, and that it is only a phenomenon called “a place memory” that witnesses see. The awful picture of five dead in a car may have been imprinted upon the environment, to appear when the conditions are optimal.
In this case, the witnesses were a family of five, traveling over the bridge in February, the anniversary month of the accident. This may have allowed the witnesses a morbid peek at a grisly snapshot in time.
After nearly eight decades of service, the old bridge was dismantled, replaced by an adjacent structure, the eight-lane Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. Some ghost enthusiasts have speculated that this will not stop the death car from appearing. They theorize that there will soon be sightings of the Lawson family traveling through the air in the space the old bridge once occupied.