How many words is An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge?

3,763 words, counted from the complete public-domain text rather than estimated from a page count.

Is An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge free to read?

The text is public domain in the United States, so it is free at Project Gutenberg and always will be. Reading it in Liminanotio — paced, with your own speed carried across books — is $2.99 on its own, or included with a membership. You can read a chapter of three books here first, with no account at all.

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An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Q: How long does it take to read An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge?

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is 3,763 words, which is about 15 min at an average reading speed of 250 words per minute. At 400 words per minute it is about 9 min, and at 600 about 6 min.

Ambrose Bierce

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is 3,763 words — about 15 min at 250 words per minute, across 3 chapters. Measure your own speed and read it here.

How long does it take to read An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge?

15 min at 250 words per minute

3,763 words · 3 chapters · counted from the full text, not estimated from a page count. Measure your own speed and this becomes your number.

Public domain 3 chapters Tap-to-define

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Cover of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

How it opens

A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below. The man’s hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck. It was attached to a stout cross-timber above his head and the slack fell to the level of his knees. Some loose boards laid upon the ties supporting the rails of the railway supplied a footing for him and his…

Details

AuthorAmbrose Bierce
SourceProject Gutenberg #375
Length3,763 words · 15 min of reading
Chapters3
DictionaryIncluded
CopyrightPublic domain in the United States
Source checked2026-08-21

Contents

3 chapters

Recovered from the original source text, so you can open the book at any of them.

01THE MILLENNIUM FULCRUM EDITION, 1988
02II
03III

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is public domain, and free at Project Gutenberg. Liminanotio is a word-at-a-time speed reader that runs in your browser, alongside the rest of the public-domain library.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

How long does it take to read An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge?

3 chapters

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