Lebanon Road
Lebanon Road – Collinsville, IL
By Michael Kleen
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Late night drives are common wherever teenagers have cars, and many communities throughout Illinois have legendary roads that offer more thrills than most. Lebanon Road is one of the more interesting of these. On or around the road are seven railroad bridges, some no longer in use. All of them are heavily coated in graffiti—a testament to their popularity for nighttime excursions.
Local visitors have crafted a hellish tale around these seven bridges, which they dubbed the “Seven Gates to Hell.” According to Chad Lewis and Terry Fisk’s Illinois Road Guide to Haunted Locations (2007), these stories have been circulating in the area for at least 40 years.
The legend is that if someone were to drive through all seven bridges and enter the last one exactly at midnight, he or she would be transported to Hell. In some versions, the person entering the final tunnel must be a skeptic. In other versions, no tunnel can be driven through twice in order for the magic to work.
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Legends and Lore of Illinois Vol. 3 – on Kindle!
Or, order all 12 issues of the Legends and Lore of Illinois from 2009 for only $5.00 in a special Kindle edition. Places covered in Vol. 3 include Lebanon Road’s 7 Gates to Hell, Ramsey Cemetery, Elmwood Cemetery’s Violin Annie, Manteno State Hospital, the Hatchet Lady of Moon Point Cemetery, Chanute Air Force Base, Ashmore Estates, Aux Sable Cemetery, Ax Man’s Bridge, and more. Plus, read letters from our readers, adventurer’s logs, Paranormal 101, and put your knowledge of these locations to the test with challenging trivia questions.
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This is the same “seven bridges road” In the Eagles song?