History & local legend
Dawson Road passes through a long concrete tunnel beneath the Bessemer railroad embankment near Culmerville in West Deer Township. Locals have called it the Ghost Tunnel, reporting a strange blue light at one of its openings.
Another version, collected by photographer Ty Sharp in 2011, concerns a girl who walked through the tunnel on her way home. A truck supposedly struck her in the darkness partway through. In the haunting, drivers who turn their headlights back on find a girl standing ahead of them in the roadway.
Sharp also recorded a story about the truck returning. It approaches from behind and follows so closely that the driver expects another collision, then vanishes.
Sources
- Bruce S. Cridlebaugh, Bridges and Tunnels of Allegheny County, firsthand field measurements and local blue-light reports
- Ty Sharp, Dawson Road Haunted Tunnel, July 25, 2011, firsthand collection of the girl and pursuing truck versions
- West Deer Township, West Deer 150 Years, picture 82 identifies the road tunnel in a 1910 Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad construction photograph
- OpenStreetMap, specifically mapped Dawson Road tunnel between Saxonburg Boulevard and Quarry Road
