The Loch Raven Bridge

The object flashed and the two men felt a wave of heat on their faces. A loud report followed as it shot straight up and away. Philip Small, 27, and Alvin Cohen, 24, were driving towards Loch Raven Dam north of Baltimore at about half past eleven on the night of 26 October 1958. Ahead of them a glowing egg-shaped object about a hundred feet long hung over the bridge across the reservoir. The car's electrics failed and the engine died. Both men were later treated for reddened and burned skin on their faces.

What is on the record

The archive's telling follows the published case closely. It describes the stalled car and the failed dashboard lights, a white beam that made the men's faces hot and a dull explosion as the object left, and their treatment for facial sunburn. Our transcripts spell the first witness Phillip; the published record has Philip.

The case has an official file, and the archive holds it. Project Blue Book investigated, and its record of the case is filed under the name Lock Raven Dam and dated the day after the sighting. The archive classes it as a government primary record. The local police also took the men's report. Blue Book reached no firm solution and some sources list the case as unidentified. No explanation has been accepted.

Two claimants are resolved: Small and Cohen. They were together in the car, so their accounts are one shared experience told by two people rather than two separate sightings. The Blue Book file is what stands behind them.

Why it sits where it does

This case grades L4, the archive's document-corroborated tier. Government paperwork is in the file. The Blue Book record carries the event alongside the testimony of both men, and the case is also covered by outside sources independent of our telling. What hung over the Loch Raven bridge is not resolved here.