• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

Visit Sleepy Hollow

Where the Legend Lives

  • See
    • Christ Episcopal Church
    • Headless Horseman Bridge
    • Headless Horseman Statue
    • Historical Society
    • Kykuit
    • Legend Landmarks
    • Lyndhurst
    • Octagon House
    • Old Croton Aqueduct Trail
    • Old Dutch Church
    • Philipsburg Manor
    • Rockefeller State Park Preserve 
    • Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
      • Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Tours
    • Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse
    • Sunnyside
    • Union Church of Pocantico Hills
  • Events
    • Events Calendar
    • Halloween in Sleepy Hollow
    • Jazz Forum
    • Tarrytown Music Hall Performances
    • Sunset Jazz at Lyndhurst Summer Series
  • Shop
    • Farmers Markets
    • Sleepy Hollow Souvenirs
  • Dine
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch and Dinner
    • Drinks
    • Coffee & Tea
    • Sweets
  • Stay
    • Hotels
    • Motels and Budget
    • Inns and Bed & Breakfasts
    • Camping
  • About
    • How Charles Dickens Stole Christmas
    • Movies Made Here
    • Florence Inn
    • Directions
  • See
    • Christ Episcopal Church
    • Headless Horseman Bridge
    • Headless Horseman Statue
    • Historical Society
    • Kykuit
    • Legend Landmarks
    • Lyndhurst
    • Octagon House
    • Old Croton Aqueduct Trail
    • Old Dutch Church
    • Philipsburg Manor
    • Rockefeller State Park Preserve 
    • Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
      • Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Tours
    • Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse
    • Sunnyside
    • Union Church of Pocantico Hills
  • Events
    • Events Calendar
    • Halloween in Sleepy Hollow
    • Jazz Forum
    • Tarrytown Music Hall Performances
    • Sunset Jazz at Lyndhurst Summer Series
  • Shop
    • Farmers Markets
    • Sleepy Hollow Souvenirs
  • Dine
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch and Dinner
    • Drinks
    • Coffee & Tea
    • Sweets
  • Stay
    • Hotels
    • Motels and Budget
    • Inns and Bed & Breakfasts
    • Camping
  • About
    • How Charles Dickens Stole Christmas
    • Movies Made Here
    • Florence Inn
    • Directions

Headless Horseman Bridge

This historic postcard shows the Albany Post Road bridge over the Pocantico River as Washington Irving would have known it.

“The bridge became more than ever an object of superstitious awe, and that may be the reason why the road has been altered of late years, so as to approach the church by the border of the mill-pond.” -The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Unfortunately, the bridge where Ichabod Crane was unseated by a pumpkin is the most popular destination in Sleepy Hollow that doesn’t exist—at least not in the form and location in which it appeared in Washington Irving’s short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".

The simple wooden span that crossed the Pocantico River in the late 1700’s has long since rotted away. In fact, Sleepy Hollow village historian Henry Steiner has documented at least five distinct bridges that carried the Albany Post Road over the stream. Scarcely a trace remains of any except the most recent, the 4-lane concrete and steel U.S. Route 9 (the modern successor to the colonial-era Albany Post Road) bridge constructed by William Rockefeller in 1912. Even that was heavily modified in the 1930s when New York State reconfigured the route of the road.

The Cemetery Bridge

In “The Legend”, Irving describes the route of the Albany post road on the east side of the Old Dutch Church (now it runs on the west side), placing Ichabod’s collision inside what is today Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. The cemetery’s own bridge, upstream from where the Post Road bridge stood in Washington Irving’s time, is rustic enough for a selfie. It is on cemetery road Sleepy Hollow Avenue about 0.3 mile inside the cemetery’s south gate. Be respectful, the cemetery bridge is used daily by funerals and mourners visiting graves.

Further upstream in Rockefeller State Park Preserve are several more rustic bridges.

The Covered Bridge

A word about the depiction of the bridge on film. While Walt Disney and Tim Burton dressed up their versions of Sleepy Hollow with covered bridges, there is no evidence in either Irving’s story or historical records that Sleepy Hollow’s bridge ever had a roof. Covered bridges were used further up the Hudson Valley, always to span rivers broader and deeper than our little creek.

Primary Sidebar

This is a space ad for the Flower Show at Lyndhurst mansion in Tarrytown.
Promotional image for Piermont Outfitters.

Loading view.
  • Week of March 26
  • Previous week
  • Next week
2:00 pm
March 26 @ 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Event Series

Tartuffe

Lyndhurst 635 South Broadway, Tarrytown
$45
4:00 pm
March 26 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Event Series

Neal Spitzer & Friends

Jazz Forum Club 1 Dixon Lane, Tarrytown
$15 – $20
6:00 pm
March 26 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Event Series

Neal Spitzer & Friends

Jazz Forum Club 1 Dixon Lane, Tarrytown
$15 – $20
+ 1 More
  • No events scheduled for March 27, 2023.
  • No events scheduled for March 28, 2023.
  • No events scheduled for March 29, 2023.
  • No events scheduled for March 30, 2023.
7:00 pm
March 31 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Event Series

Anthony Rodia

Tarrytown Music Hall 13 Main Street, Tarrytown
$40 – $65
9:00 pm
March 31 @ 9:30 pm - 11:00 pm Event Series

Anthony Rodia

Tarrytown Music Hall 13 Main Street, Tarrytown
$40 – $65
9:00 am
April 1 @ 9:30 am - 4:00 pm Event Series

Lyndhurst Tours

Lyndhurst 635 South Broadway, Tarrytown
$18 – $42
8:00 pm
April 1 @ 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

The Manhattan Transfer 50th Anniversary

Tarrytown Music Hall 13 Main Street, Tarrytown
$55 – $85

Week of Events

Sun 26

Mon 27

Tue 28

Wed 29

Thu 30

Fri 31

Sat 1

2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Event Series

Tartuffe

March 26 @ 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Event Series

Tartuffe

M&M Performing Arts brings Tartuffe, Molière’s timely, classic farce about seduction, hypocrisy, and deception, in a ridiculously hilarious new adaptation to Lyndhurst Mansion in March 2023. The funniest play on Broadway …

$45
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Event Series

Neal Spitzer & Friends

March 26 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Event Series

Neal Spitzer & Friends

Neal Andrew Spitzer is a full time musician, composer, educator and sound engineer. Music has always been a big part of Neal Spitzer's life as his mother, the accomplished concert …

$15 – $20
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Event Series

Neal Spitzer & Friends

March 26 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Event Series

Neal Spitzer & Friends

Neal Andrew Spitzer is a full time musician, composer, educator and sound engineer. Music has always been a big part of Neal Spitzer's life as his mother, the accomplished concert …

$15 – $20
+ 1 More
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Event Series

Anthony Rodia

March 31 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Event Series

Anthony Rodia

A first-generation Italian-American born and raised right here in Westchester County, New York, Anthony Rodia came out of the womb making people laugh. In his 20’s he tried a few …

$40 – $65
9:30 pm - 11:00 pm Event Series

Anthony Rodia

March 31 @ 9:30 pm - 11:00 pm Event Series

Anthony Rodia

A first-generation Italian-American born and raised right here in Westchester County, New York, Anthony Rodia came out of the womb making people laugh. In his 20’s he tried a few …

$40 – $65
9:30 am - 4:00 pm Event Series

Lyndhurst Tours

April 1 @ 9:30 am - 4:00 pm Event Series

Lyndhurst Tours

Lyndhurst, one of America’s finest Gothic Revival mansions, overlooks the Hudson River in Tarrytown, NY. The estate was shaped for more than a century by three families and their staff: The …

$18 – $42
8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

The Manhattan Transfer 50th Anniversary

April 1 @ 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

The Manhattan Transfer 50th Anniversary

The 10-time Grammy-winning vocal group, The Manhattan Transfer, is celebrating 50 years of their distinctive and eclectic sound with what they are calling their “final world tour.” Founded in 1972 …

$55 – $85
View Calendar

Recent Posts

  • Lyndhurst After Dark
  • Hulda’s Night at Rockefeller State Park
  • A Chorale Christmas
  • Victorian Christmas at the Octagon House
  • Warner Library Fall Book Sale

Copyright © 2023 Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Historic Fund, Inc. · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Mai Theme · Privacy Policy