The water under a rarely-visited train trestle in Mendota, Virginia is said to sometimes glow with the spirit of a man who tried to escape while building the bridge. In his book Haunts of Virginia's Blue Ridge Highlands, author Joe Tennis records that a member of the chain gang that was building the trestle in 1879 tried to escape by jumping into the Holston River below. Unfortunately, he landed on jagged rocks below and died. Since then, some say his spirit appears as a wavering light under the bridge.