This road in the U.S. seems to defy gravity: the secret behind its impossible tilt
This hill appears to defy gravity, and some say a ghost moves the cars.
While most supernatural stories involve ghouls, haunted houses, and shadowy figures, this one revolves around some suspicious tarmac.
Don’t click away to Pinterest, hear me out first.
If you ever find yourself driving through Lake Wales, Florida, and your car starts rolling uphill, don’t panic. You’ve just driven onto Spook Hill, the town’s most famous optical illusion.
From the outside, Spook Hill doesn’t look like anything other than a sleepy stretch of road with a few signs, a nearby school, and some palm trees swaying in the Florida heat.
However, park your car at the white line, shift into neutral, and take your foot off the brake: your vehicle will appear to roll backwards, creeping its way uphill. Gravity, it seems, can’t beat the power of the ghosts.
“The way that it looks is not the way that it really is”
Naturally, this being the United States, local legends have stepped in where science seems to falter. Stories swirl of ghostly Native American warriors, battles with giant alligators, and ancient spirits unsettled by modern life (which, given the news, might be understandable).
Alas, science does, like everything, manage to explain the strange phenomenon, not legend: Spook Hill is one of many so-called “gravity hills” around the world — roads where the surrounding landscape creates a visual illusion that tricks your brain into misjudging slope and angle, causing you to think it’s going up one way when it’s actually the other.
“It is in fact an optical illusion sort of thing,” said Anderson Hanna, curator of collections and exhibits for the Lake Wales History Museum. “The way that it looks is not the way that it really is. A lot of local businesses and things like that were like, you know, if we had a roadside attraction, people could get off of those main highways and come into our little town and possibly get some sort of commerce and things of that nature…that’s one of the reasons roadside attractions actually came about."
While there are hundreds of gravity hills across the globe, when it comes to the United States, the most famous ones are located in Princeton (KY), Santa Cruz (CA), and Blaine Township (MI), which all have their own myths and legends that add to the mystery and fame of the respective towns and cities.
The Legend:
Legend has it that a Native American tribe in the area was being harassed by a giant alligator. They sent their warrior chief to fend off the beast. Following his brave battle to the death, the chief was buried on the north side of the hill. Years later, pioneers hauling goods from the army trail, noticed that their horses strained at the foot of the ridge, even though it appeared to be going downhill. This eerie occurrence is why they started to call this area Spook Hill.
— Visit Central Florida
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