The Municipal Bridge Vision: Difference between revisions

<youtube>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPxLLO61lE4</youtube>

The video above contains an error in that it indicates that there were no fatalities in the building of the Municipal Bridge.  Based on research performed by [[Searching for Vindication]], there were 2 fatalities in the construction of the bridge as noted below. However, the conclusions reached in the video remain the same.

William Branham told a story that, if true, would be genuinely remarkable. As a young child, he claimed to have had a vision of a bridge spanning the Ohio River — and sixteen men falling to their deaths during its construction. Twenty-two years later, he said, the Louisville Municipal Bridge was built, and sixteen men died just as he'd seen.

== The Vision, In His Own Words ==

Here's Branham describing it in 1959:<blockquote>''"I was playing marbles out with my little brothers, out in the front yard. And all at once I had a strange feeling come on me... I seen sixteen men (I counted them) that dropped off of there and lost their lives on that bridge. I run in real quick and told my mother... twenty-two years from then the Municipal Bridge now crossed the river at the same place, and sixteen men lost their life building that bridge across the river. It's never failed to be perfectly true."''</blockquote>He told the same story multiple times, in multiple cities, over multiple decades. The details are vivid. Specific. The kind of thing you'd think would be easy to verify.

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|'''[http://en.believethesign.com/index.php/French#La_v.C3.A9rit.C3.A9_pure_et_simple_sur_la_proph.C3.A9tie_du_pont En Francais]''' <br> La vérité pure et simple sur la prophétie du pont.

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'''[http://en.believethesign.com/index.php/Dutch#William_Branham.27s_visioen_van_Municipalbrug_in_Louisville Dutch]''' <br> William Branham's visioen van Municipalbrug in Louisville.

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== Problem #1: The Deaths Simply Didn't Happen ==

Two men died building the Louisville Municipal Bridge. Two.

* '''Richard Pilton''', June 19, 1929 — struck in the temple by an iron crank. He didn't drown.

* '''Lloyd McEwen''', September 10, 1929 — lost his footing and fell onto a barge below. He didn't drown either.

You might wonder: could records have been lost? Could sixteen deaths have gone unreported? It's a fair question — and researchers at [[Searching for Vindication]] actually went and checked. They traveled to the National Archives in Atlanta and photographed every page of the daily logs kept by Life Saving Station #10, the Coast Guard station located less than half a mile from the bridge. These logs documented every rescue and recovery operation on that stretch of river from 1881 to 1972. The researchers went through every entry from May 1928 through December 1939 — a full decade past the bridge's completion.

Nothing. No mass drowning. No construction catastrophe involving sixteen men. Not even close.

One important detail: Branham specifically said the men ''drowned''. That's not a minor qualifier — it's the central claim. And it's directly contradicted by both deaths that were actually documented. Neither man went into the river.

'''Additionally, In a telephone conversation between the editor of this website and George Smith, William Branham's son-in-law, George Smith admitted that this vision was not fulfilled.'''

Half a mile upstream from the Municipal Bridge sits the '''Big Four Bridge''', a railroad bridge that opened in 1895. The construction of ''that'' bridge was a genuine catastrophe:

* A few months later, a wooden beam failure in a separate caisson killed '''4 more'''.

* In December 1893, a construction crane was knocked loose by wind, a supporting truss collapsed, and 41 workers fell into the Ohio River. '''21 of them died.'''

All of this happened before William Branham was born.

So when Branham was growing up in Jeffersonville, there was existing local memory — stories about a bridge disaster on the Ohio River where a lot of people died. When a new bridge went up right nearby, and he was living in Arizona at the time and not following local news closely, it's not hard to see how the two could get mixed up. There's a real, verifiable source for the "sixteen deaths on a bridge" story. It's just the wrong bridge.

A January 22, 1890 article from the ''North Carolinian'' — headlined "Sixteen Men Killed" — reports on the caisson accident at the Big Four Bridge. Some Message followers started circulating this article on social media, claiming it was from the late 1920s and proved Branham's prophecy was fulfilled at the Municipal Bridge.

The date is right there on the article. This isn't a misreading. Someone knowingly misrepresented a source to protect a belief system. It's worth calling it what it is.

== Problem #3: The Math Doesn't Work ==

William Branham was born in 1909. He said the vision came to him when he was '''five or six years old''' — so around 1914 or 1915. He also said the bridge was completed '''twenty-two years later'''.

1914 + 22 = '''1936'''.

The Municipal Bridge opened on '''October 31, 1929'''. Seven years before 1936.

There's another version of the timeline where Branham doesn't specify his age but simply says "twenty-two years." If you work backward from 1929, the vision would have occurred in 1907 — two years before he was born. That version doesn't work either.

== Problem #4: He Pointed to a Specific Section of the Bridge That "Fell" ==

This detail comes from Pearry Green, a prominent Message minister. [https://youtu.be/Qdq98yB_KH0?si=F41TUeqODJFHQaD- According to Green], Branham didn't just vaguely refer to the Municipal Bridge — he stood underneath it and physically pointed out the ''exact section'' that he claimed had fallen into the river, killing the sixteen men.

Pearry Green isn't the problem here. He didn't grow up in Jeffersonville, had no reason to doubt what Branham told him, and was simply passing on what he'd been shown. The problem is upstream. Branham stood under a bridge, pointed at a specific location, and described an event with physical precision that never occurred. That's not a misinterpretation of a vision. That's a false factual claim, delivered with confidence.

----

You'd expect someone with a childhood prophecy tied to a local landmark to take at least a passing interest in it. But in a 1955 sermon, Branham described not caring about the new bridge at all:<blockquote>''"They was all talking about flowers, and the new bridge that went across the river. And I — I wasn't interested in that."''</blockquote>For a man who repeatedly cited the Municipal Bridge as proof of his prophetic gift, that's a strange thing to say.

The earliest recorded retelling of the Municipal Bridge vision was in 1948 — and it wasn't in Jeffersonville. For a story supposedly rooted in local history, involving a landmark his neighbors walked across every day, Branham didn't tell it to his home congregation until '''1960'''. That's over thirty years after the bridge opened.

And the people sitting in Branham Tabernacle in 1960 weren't mostly longtime Jeffersonville locals. Many had moved there specifically to be near Branham. They had no particular reason to fact-check a local history story told by a man they trusted completely. Doing so would have meant a real trip to a library or records office, and most people don't go looking for reasons to doubt someone they love.

Nobody pushed back. And the story settled in as established truth.

== Problem #7: Why Didn't He Warn Anyone? ==

He didn't warn the workers. He didn't contact the construction company. He didn't alert local authorities. Instead, years later, he told the story as proof that he'd foreseen it — almost with a sense of pride about the accuracy of the vision.

A true prophet who saw preventable deaths coming and said nothing isn't demonstrating the gift of prophecy. He's demonstrating something else entirely.

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== The Excuses (And Why They Don't Hold Up) ==

Over the years, Message followers have floated several alternative explanations. Here's why each one fails.

'''"He misinterpreted the vision"''' — Supporters cite Acts 10:17, where Peter is briefly confused about the meaning of a vision. But clarity came quickly in that account — read Acts 10 and 11 together and the meaning is plain within the same narrative. More importantly, Branham didn't say "I'm not sure what the vision means." He stood underneath the Municipal Bridge and pointed to a specific section he claimed had fallen. That's not uncertainty about a vision's meaning. That's a concrete factual assertion.

'''"People have jumped from the bridge and died"''' — This ignores Branham's own words. He described a ''sign'' that appeared in the vision reading "twenty-two years." He explicitly said the men fell ''during construction''. Suicides scattered over decades don't fit any part of that description.

'''"The 1937 flood destroyed the records"''' — The Coast Guard log books survive. Complete archived copies of the Jeffersonville newspapers survive. This excuse is simply false, and the research done by [[Searching for Vindication]] documents it thoroughly.

'''"The men drowned in concrete"''' — This story comes from Jack Vissing, whose law firm represented Voice of God Recordings at the time — a clear conflict of interest. Beyond that, the engineering case against it is clean: a decomposing body leaves a large air pocket in concrete. Sixteen such voids would have compromised the structural integrity of the pillar years ago. The bridge is still standing. Rebar reinforcement also leaves no physical space for a body to be submerged, let alone sixteen. And a tragedy of that scale would have appeared in the engineers' reports, in the newspapers, and in the memories of the workers' families. None of that exists.

----

Branham was in Arizona when the Municipal Bridge was built. He returned to Jeffersonville after his brother died in June 1929, right as the bridge was nearing completion. He grew up in a town with living memory of the Big Four Bridge disaster upstream. He didn't tell this story in Jeffersonville — of all places — until 1960, by which point checking the facts would have taken real effort and real time, from people who trusted him completely.

The chronology doesn't work. The death toll doesn't exist in any surviving record. The Coast Guard logs are clean. The specific section of bridge he claimed fell into the river never fell. And the story wasn't told locally for three decades.

These aren't small problems around the edges of an otherwise credible claim. They go straight to the heart of it.

==About the Louisville Municipal Bridge==

The American Bridge Company developed a new method of erecting the cantilever structure which was known as the "guy derrick system of erection." This system was so successful it allowed completion of the bridge one month in advance of the deadline. The bridge was dedicated by President Herbert Hoover at its opening on October 31, 1929.  

It was during this time that William Branham was working as a cowhand in Arizona.  He returned to Jeffersonville after he received news that his brother Edward had passed away on June 20, 1929.  When he returned to Jeffersonville, the new bridge would have been opened or very close to completion. In 1949, the bridge was renamed in honor of George Rogers Clark. The bridge was rehabilitated in 1958, and is still in use today.

We would highly recommend those interested in this issue to read the research performed by [[Searching for Vindication]].

==Newspaper article - The Big Four Bridge==

::::'''''Sixteen Men Killed'''''

::::'''''A Most Appalling Accident in Louisville, Ky.'''

::::'''''Workmen Meet Their Death by a Falling Bridge Caisson.'''

:''Sixteen lives have been lost by the giving way of a caisson at the new bridge now building across the Ohio River at Louisville, KY.  Most of the victims were colored.''

:''The caisson, known as No. 1, was about one hundred yards from the Kentucky shore. As the workmen of the pumping station were looking for the men in the caisson to put off in their boards, leaving work for the night, they suddenly saw the low, dark structure disappear in the dashing white waves, and heard, before they could realize what had happened, the roar of the furious maelstrom.  A runner was despatched to the life-saving station and three skiffs were manned and pulled to the scene of the wreck.

:'''''The site of the bridge is at the upper end of the city, just below Towhead Island.'''  Within an hour from the disappearance of the caisson 3000 people were on the shore straining themselves trying to see something of the wreckage.  Dozens of boats were plying about over the spot where the caisson had stood and lights danced to and fro with them, but there was no trace of the massive structure of stone and timber which had kept off the hungry river, to give hope to the anguish-stricken mothers and wives who stood in the throng on the shore.''

:''The men saved are Abe Taylor, Lewis Couch, James Murray and Frank Haddox, all colored.  The last man out of the caisson was Frank Haddox.  He was barely saved by Murray, who dragged him from where he was caught waist deep in the quicksand.  Taylor says he stood nearest the iron ladders, by which they got in and out of the caisson.  He heard a rumbling and there was a rush of air almost at the same instant.  He jumped up the rungs of the ladder, followed by the other men.  They had hardly got clear of the caisson when the water burst through the manhole in a surge knocking them all into the river, where they were picked up. Haddox says he saw Ham Morris, who was climbing next below himself, swiftly drawn under the sand and heard his cries for help, but could do nothing.

:''John Knox, the gang boss, took charge of the work three days before.  The colored men who escaped say he had them dig too deep before letting the caisson settle, and the digging was too close to the shoe of the caisson.  Just before the accident Knox gave some order to Rober Baldwin, the keeper in charge of the upper door to the exit. Baldwin then opened the door, and the compressed air which kept out the river rushed out, letting in the stream.  The men say they were working in an ugly quicksand at the time. The caisson was about forty feet by twenty, and built of timbers twelve inches square. It was protected by a coffer-dam, but the river is very high and the pressure of the water very great.

:''The most plausible theory as to the cause of the accident is thus given by one of the survivors, Louis Crouch, and his story receives not a little credence from the Superintendent of the work.  Knox, the foreman, had been seen near the key which controls the air supply, and it is believed that he cut off the air more than he really intended to, causing the caisson to sink into the sand.''

William Branham tells of a vision that he had as a young boy...

:''And then sometime about a month after that, I was playing marbles out with my little brothers, out in the front yard. And all at once I had a strange feeling come on me. And I stopped and set down aside of a tree. And we were right up on the bank from the Ohio River. And I looked down towards Jeffersonville, and I seen a bridge rise up and go across that, the river, span the river. And I seen sixteen men (I counted them) that dropped off of there and lost their lives on that bridge. I run in real quick and told my mother, and she thought I went to sleep. But they kept it in mind, and twenty-two years from then the Municipal Bridge now (that many of you cross when you cross there) crossed the river at the same place, and sixteen men lost their life building that bridge across the river.''

William Branham related this same story many times and other ministers have repeated it as the gospel truth.

The Louisville Municipal Bridge opened to the public as a toll bridge on October 31, 1929. It was renamed the George Rogers Clark Memorial bridge in 1949, but is known locally as the Second Street Bridge.

The Municipal Bridge crosses the Ohio River between Jeffersonville, Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky. A half mile east is the Big Four railway bridge.

Construction on the Big Four Bridge started in 1888. 12 men were drowned while working on a pier foundation and another 4 men died when a wooden beam broke.

In late 1893, 41 men fell from the bridge when a truss fell into the river. 20 of these men were rescued while the other 21 perished in the river. This was one of the worst bridge disasters in US history. However, there is no record of anyone being killed in the construction of the Municipal Bridge or of 16 men falling to their death from that bridge.

The Big Four Bridge was the ONLY Louisville Bridge with serious accidents during its construction, and these accidents all occurred long before William Branham was born.  Not a single person died during the building of the Municipal Bridge.

Based on William Branham’s testimony, he had the vision 22 years before the bridge opened, which means he had it before he was born. And William Branham consistently retells this prophecy indicating it was fulfilled exactly as he saw it when, in fact, the event never happened.

:''...And they wrote it down. And twenty-two years from then it happened just exactly, and sixteen men lost their life. It's never been, out of the thousands of things, but what it's been perfectly right.'' (From that time - 62-0713)

'''If you have any additional facts relating to the subject of this video information, please contact us.'''

The following are all of the quotes where William Branham mentions this vision:

:''Here at the municipal bridge. Sister, no doubt you know where the municipal bridge is, don't you, cross from Jeffersonville to Louisville?

:''Twenty-two years, when I was a little boy, just a little bitty lad about five years old, or six years old, when the Angel of the Lord appeared in the bush... You've heard me tell that haven't you, when I was packing water?

:''Well, about two weeks after that, I was playing marbles with my little brother. And I thought I'd got sick, some real funny feeling came on me. And I went and set down by the side of a tree. And I looked down at the river, and there went a bridge, a big, great big bridge going across the river. And I counted sixteen men that fell off of that bridge and drowned. And I went and told mother. And I told her I seen it. And they thought I was crazy or something. They thought I was just at a little nervous hysterical child.

:''And twenty-two years from that time, on the same ground went the municipal bridge across, and sixteen men lost their lives on it. See? Wasn't nothing that... It's--it's God sent it. Your prayers brought it. See?

:''And about four days after that, it appeared to me and a strange feeling came upon me, as it always does, and I seen the municipal bridge, at Jeffersonville, cross, come up out of the wilderness on the hill where I was standing, and crossed the river. I seen sixteen men fall off of it. They put that down and twenty-two years from that day, the municipal bridge spanned the river at the same place and sixteen men lost their life on it. And just things like that.

:''It's nothing I can do in myself. It's just what He shows me, is all I can speak. Only thing that any true man of God could ever say, but what God would put in his mouth to say. Outside of that, it would totally be a failure. And when It met me, many times, and told many things which I probably get a chance after while, to tell you in one of the meetings.

:''And my little brother and I, a few days later from that was setting out under the tree. We'd been playing marbles. And I felt a peculiar feeling, like a... Something was standing near me. And all at once, something happened. I set down. And I looked, and I seen coming up out of the river a big bridge, spanned across the river, and sixteen people fell off of it.

:''I went and told them. They said, "Why, you dreamed."

:''I Said, "No, I looked at it. I seen it."

:''Twenty-two years from that time, the big Municipal bridge spanned across the Ohio River, and sixteen men lost their life on it.

:''And it just started like that, and begin... That was before I was ever even a Christian. My people wasn't Christian. Gifts and callings are without repentance. It's a foreordination of God. Then It kept telling things on down.

:''Then a few days after that, setting... That was my first vision, setting out there under a big silver poplar tree in the front yard, where the tree stands yet today... Standing out there in the front of that place, I seen Something, like yesterday afternoon, I seen Him coming upon me, that I never... I didn't know what it was. In a little bit I moved off, and I looked, and I seen moving up out of those bushes down by the river, and along there came a big bridge, and it spanned across the river. I seen men dropping off of it and losing their lives.

:''And I went in and told mama. She said, "Honey, you went to sleep."

:''I said, "Mama, I was not asleep." I said, "I was setting there. I had a funny feeling, mama." I said, "Oh, I'm scared, mama. What's the matter with me?"

:''She said, "Oh, you're just nervous, honey."

:''I said, "Mama, something... I don't want to feel this way." And it was Something moving. And just... She wrote it down. And twenty-two years from that time, the Municipal Bridge which spans the Ohio River run across at the same place, and the same amount of men dropped off the bridge and lost their lives, just exactly.  

LIFE.STORY_  OWENSBORO.KY  SUNDAY_  53-1108A

:''So then, I remember about two weeks after that, I was playing marble with my brother, and there I--I felt something strange come over me. I didn't know what was taking place. And I went out, set down just a minute, and I looked, and right before me, I seen something moving. And the waters looked like the river was looking closer to me. And I seen the Municipal bridge that spans the river now, come up and cross the river, and seen the amount of men dropped off, and went in and told my mama. She said, "You had a dream, honey."

:''I said, "No, ma'am. I stood and looked right at it, and I seen what it did."

:''And--and twenty-two years from that very same year, the bridge which spans the Ohio River, and just exactly the same amount of men lost their life. And they just kept on going. Every time, everywhere, just vision after vision. Nobody...

:''At the age of just a little bitty boy, I could remember He speaking to me and telling me about a bridge that was going to span the river, how many men would lose their life on that bridge. And they wrote it down to see what it was all about. They thought I was dreaming. I was out in the yard, just something come over me, and I set down. I seen it. And I went and told mother, she said, "You went to sleep, honey."

:''I said, "No, ma'am, I never went to sleep. I stood and watched It come up out of the bushes."

:''And twenty-two years from that time, the Municipal Bridge span across the Ohio River, and the same sixteen men lost their live on it, just like It said. See? And it's always been that way. And Christian friends, to the best of my soul, I say this for God's glory: I have never seen one time but what it was just as perfect, just exactly the way It said it would be.

:''A little later on, about two weeks later I was playing marbles with my brother, and I felt something come to me. We lived up on a hill, and the river was below us: a wilderness around. And I saw a bridge come up out of the wilderness. And it started across the river. Sixteen men dropped off in--into the water and perished. And I seen a big sign, it said "twenty-two years." I run in and told my mother.

:''Oh, she said, "Son, you're nervous. You went to sleep and you were dreaming."

:''I said, "No. No. I saw it." So they wrote it down on a piece of paper. And twenty-two years from then, the great bridge crossed the river, and twen--sixteen men dropped off of it and--and drowned in the river. Every time, it's perfect.

MY.LIFE.STORY  '''LA.CA'''   59-0419A

:''And then sometime about a month after that, I was playing marbles out with my little brothers, out in the front yard. And all at once I had a strange feeling come on me. And I stopped and set down aside of a tree. And we were right up on the bank from the Ohio River. And I looked down towards Jeffersonville, and I seen a bridge rise up and go across that, the river, span the river. And I seen sixteen men (I counted them) that dropped off of there and lost their lives on that bridge. I run in real quick and told my mother, and she thought I went to sleep. But they kept it in mind, and twenty-two years from then the Municipal Bridge now (that many of you cross when you cross there) crossed the river at the same place, and sixteen men lost their life building that bridge across the river.

:''It's never failed to be perfectly true. As you see It here in the auditorium, It's been that way all the time.

:''Then two--about two weeks from then, I was playing marbles with my brother, and Something come upon me, and I looked down at the river. And I saw a great bridge span the river, and I watched sixteen men drop off of it and lose their lives. When It left me, I ran in to my mother and I told her. "Oh," she said, "honey, you was dreaming." But I wasn't. But she wrote it down. And twenty-two years from that day, the Municipal Bridge spanned the river at the same place, and sixteen men lost their life on it. It just kept coming all the time, like that.  

THE.UNCERTAIN.SOUND  '''JEFF.IN''' 60-1218

:''Now, I thought, when they put those big girders up there, "My, that bridge will last forever." Oh, they've painted it three or four times, and it's rusting down right now. What is it? The rays in the air burned it up.

:''Certain things happened. When I was a little boy He spoke to me, He said, "Don't never smoke or drink, or defile your body. There's a work for you to do when I get--when you get older." It's in the book back there. You may read it. And my mother and them, they thought I was just nervous.

:''And then It went ahead, and two days--three days after that told how that bridge would cross the river just below our place now. Sixteen men would lose their life on it. And they wrote it down. And twenty-two years from then it happened just exactly, and sixteen men lost their life. It's never been, out of the thousands of things, but what it's been perfectly right. See? That's right. See, things happen when you're a child, that impresses.

:''A week after that, I seen the Municipal Bridge, in a trance, as I called it, seen the Municipal Bridge cross the Ohio River, seen sixteen man lose their life on it. Twenty-two years from that day, the Municipal Bridge crosses the same place, and sixteen man lost their life in it.

THE.TRIAL '''TOPEKA.KS''' 64-0621

:''I said, "No, I never, mama. I watched it."

:''Exactly seventeen years from that day, the Municipal Bridge at Jeffersonville spanned over to Kentucky, and the seventh... And the sixteen man lost their life on it, just exactly like it said. Ah, so did Mr. Unbeliever has tempted me all along!

=References=

*The Jeffersonville Evening News reported two deaths on its front page on Thursday, June 30, 1929. One death was Edward Branham, William Branham's brother, who died of rheumatism of the heart. The second death was Richard Pilton, the first fatality during the construction of the Bridge, who died when an iron crank he was using struck him in the temple.  

*[http://searchingforvindication.com/2013/04/06/Summary-Of-Municipal-Bridge/ Summary of historical data on Searching For Vindication]

 

[[Category:Prophecies and Visions]]

[[Category:Honesty and Credibility]]