Smyrna’s Most Haunted Tale: How the Monkey Woman Bridge Became Local Folklore

The Legend of Smyrna’s Monkey Woman Bridge
By Mike Sparks

This story is dedicated to the life and legacy of the late Sally Walls. Thank you, Sally, for the memories, encouragement, caring spirit for others, your vision, and for being a trailblazer in Tennessee law enforcement.

When I was a young boy, I would often ride along with Sally Walls, former Smyrna police chief and the first female chief in the department’s history. She was my neighbor—I grew up right next door to her—and I considered her a mentor. I was close friends with her son Lonnie, and everyone who knew Lonnie understood that he was wild as a buck, and that’s putting it mildly. But it was Sally who truly shaped my understanding of our community.

We would often drive over the current bridge where the former Monkey Woman Bridge was roughly located. She would tell us the old tale—which would place a scare in us boys.
Many may recall the old tree lined canopy over the old road which went near the old graveyard, that I think, dates back to the early 1700s.

Sally would often take a few local kids swimming at the old Smyrna Country Club that she and Major James Walls owned, along with their famous Omni Hut restaurant—a place that would become deeply meaningful to me when I started working there at thirteen for $1.50 an hour. Many days I’d walk to work when I couldn’t catch a ride with Major Walls. During our rides together, Sally would share local stories and tales about our community’s past—weaving narratives that seemed to bring the very landmarks to life.

Among all these stories, one would become Smyrna’s most enduring and chilling legend: the story of Monkey Woman Bridge.

Many stories circulated around town describing haunted buildings, landmarks and cemeteries that depicted spirits, ghosts and strange sounds from unknown sources. But the story of the “Monkey Woman Bridge” added a flair all its own: a hybrid creature, part monkey and part woman, who would disturb anyone who spent too much time around a specific old bridge in Smyrna.

State historian Marty Luffman, who specializes

in Smyrna history, said he gets asked about the story frequently. Luffman acknowledged that while the story is “nothing but a legend,” it remains a captivating tale to tell.

The story unfolds in various ways depending on who tells it, but Luffman’s account describes a “woman on all fours” who was “like a little spider monkey.” She would appear from under the bridge when couples escaped there in the dead of night to spend some personal time together.

Smyrna Honors Trailblazing Law Enforcement Leader Sally Walls with Commemorative Plaque

Luffman explained there was a cemetery nearby where couples would drive to make out. The bridge, located about a hundred feet away, supposedly housed the monkey woman.

“As legend went, you would be sitting out there making out with your girlfriend, and the windows would start steaming up, so you would roll the windows down to get fresh air in your car,” Luffman recounted. “Next thing you know, the guy would be sitting there laying back his head with his arm hanging out the window, and he’d just be tapping the side of the car, and the little woman would come up and crawl up his arm, trying to get in the car.”

The story continues with the person being harassed by the creature slapping the side of the car to try and shake the monkey woman off. Thus, anyone traveling to the bridge would slap the side of their cars, not to incite the monkey woman, but rather to shake her off the person’s arm.

While no documented photos of the acclaimed monkey

woman exist, one slice of credibility comes from the well-known Murfreesboro journalist, Ed Bell. According to Frank Caperton, President of the Rutherford County Historical Society, Bell allegedly visited the bridge to discover for himself what happened.

Caperton said that during the 1950s, Bell visited the bridge with his wife and had a bizarre experience of his own.

“He’s the journalist who claimed that something jumped on the hood of his car, banging on the windows,” Caperton said. However, Caperton acknowledged the story of Bell’s encounter with the monkey woman has likely been embellished over the years.

Additionally, Bell “may have been nipping at the bottle a little bit, like he was known to do,” Caperton noted.

The story takes another turn when a construction crew allegedly discovered the remains of a woman near the bridge when they set out to move the structure.

In 1976, Jesse Messick, a figure now known in Murfreesboro for curating the city’s annual Uncle Dave Macon Days music festival, was helping to build Cannonsburgh Village. According to Caperton, a construction company had planned to raze the bridge in Smyrna. The company manager told Messick he could have the bridge, and Messick accepted the offer.

Construction workers were “going up and down Stewarts Creek, and they came upon what looked like a camp,” according to Caperton. It was at this camp where the workers discovered the remains, the story goes.

Little else is known about the ‘monkey woman bridge.’ In the years since, the road which passes over Stewart’s Creek via the infamous bridge has been rerouted. One Mile Lane replaced the road, and a concrete bridge sits not far from the first bridge’s location. The old location of the bridge is now on a tract of private property, but the legend will likely never disappear.

My mind often goes back to those times and rides with Sally Walls and the stories she shared. The legend of the Monkey Woman Bridge became more than just a local ghost story—it was a connection to my childhood, to my mentor, and to the rich folklore that makes small towns like Smyrna so memorable. Whether the creature ever existed or not, the story remains a testament to the power of local legends to bind communities together through shared mystery and wonder.