What is it that makes an abandoned place so scary? In reality, these places are just visions of the past, nothing more than old buildings with a few overgrown bushes surrounding them to add a sense of the unknown. For many, an abandoned building, park or town can seem like a ghost in itself -- the ghost of a place that no longer exists, with only a few remnants left to tell its story. Here are some of the scariest abandoned places in the U.S. today.
Willard Asylum - Willard, New York
Creepy Factor: Many of the patients who died in the asylum were buried in graves marked with numbers. Their suitcases, which were stored in an attic, were found by an employee in 1995. Most of them dated back to 1910, with over 400 stored away.
Six Flags Jazzland - New Orleans, Louisiana
Creepy Factor: That clown head says it all.
Orpheum Auditorium - New Bedford, Massachusetts
Creepy Factor: The theater itself is so spooky that it's actually used for haunted houses during the Halloween season -- this year it's "Beelzebub's Carnevil."
Holy Land USA - Waterbury, Connecticut
Creepy Factor: There's just something unsettling about a place filled with biblical references now overgrown with weeds, rust, and dust.
Domino Sugar Factory - Brooklyn, New York
Creepy Factor: Before the factory even shut down, workers were alleged to simply quit on the spot after claiming to see spirits -- or sometimes, in the case of a specter donned "The Whistler," after hearing them.
Eastern State Penitentiary - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Creepy Factor: This prison was known as one of the roughest while it was still running. Prisoners were said to have been kept in solitary confinement up to 23 hours a day, with many being tied to chairs, unable to move a muscle. No wonder so many visitors now claim to hear wailing, crying, laughing and chatter within these massive walls.
