Updated October 3rd, 2020

If you were ever to run into a ghost, which story would you tell them? Would you give them a ghost story? Today’s prompt is by Camilla @ Reader in the Attic and asks us to tell a local urban legend. Gather round friends, for today I’m telling you the story of Old Finch Road.

Everywhere has its own urban legends and stories, but when I was trying to think of what would count as a Toronto urban legend, I came up short. Casa Loma should have had something creepy happen in it. It’s begging for a ghost, but nothing. Just a guy who built a house.

For fictional books, there’s always the scariest story I’ve ever read or the best books about facing death.

For nonfiction? Forget any ghosts in Casa Loma. Instead, I’m going to tell you the story of the Ghost of Old Finch Bridge.

My Introduction to Old Finch Road

I first heard of Old Finch Road when I was in university. My friends would tell me stories of the night that they went to Old Finch Road. They parked their car and began to walk slowly over the bridge. Even when they stopped walking, they could hear the sounds of footsteps behind them. But when they turned? No one was there.

Spooked, they decided to drive over the bridge instead. They retreated to their car and started to drive, but they weren’t very far before the car started to die. It would sputter and need to be restarted over and over again.

Completely freaked out at this point, my friends decided to bail on going any further. They backed up and went back the way they came. The further they got from the bridge, the better the car drove.

Old Finch Road is a road that marks the divide between residential Scarborough and a forested area. Despite being within the Greater Toronto Area, there’s an eerie feeling to the place at night. When you get to the edge of the road, there’s a bridge that is completely shrouded in darkness.

The Urban Legend

The story goes that there was a young girl who was murdered on the Old Finch Bridge. She’d been celebrating her birthday and got separated from her friends. While they searched for her, they never found her alive again. It was only when daylight came that they were able to find her mangled body. Her killer was never found.

According to the stories, what you need to do is go when it’s full dark and near the witching hour. If you cross the bridge at night and sing Happy Birthday, you will hear the girl screaming as she’s murdered.

Another legend near the bridge is for those who aren’t walking over the bridge, but driving. There are train tracks near the bridge and my friends told stories of how their cars would stall near the tracks. At times, their headlights would die. Others claimed that they parked on the train tracks and they were pushed out of the way be a force they couldn’t see.

The story goes that those tracks have claimed a lot of lives, you see, and no one wants another ghost there.

I don’t know what’s true, because I’ve never visited Old Finch at night. I’ve heard the stories and I’m not one to walk around in dark areas anyway. There are very few lights in the area, making it pitch black and that much scarier.

Have you ever had a supernatural experience? Let me know in the comments below.

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