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Bridgeport Feed
Store
TE photo February 2004 |
History
in a Pecan Shell
The towns name comes from 1860 when the West Fork Bridge Company was
formed to build a bridge here as part of the Butterfield Overland
Mail route. The bridge was built, but after the Civil War the stageline
was made obsolete by renewed railroad expansion. The wooden bridge
collapsed and Bridgeport remained a backwater until a replacement
iron bridge was built (1873) to facilitate the moving of military
supplies to Fort
Richardson.
Bridgeport was granted a post office in May of 1873. Coal was discovered
in the1880s and its production remained a local economic engine until
1929.
The Rock Island railroad built within two miles of Bridgeport in 1893
and the town relocated. The railroad was naturally a boon to local
cattle ranchers and dairy farmers. In 1920 Bridgeport had a population
nearly 2,000. In the late 1920s, brick production and crushed stone
for road projects were added to the town's industries.
In 1931 Lake Bridgeport (3 miles west of town) was finished, creating
a tourist industry - a fairly new concept for many people in North
Texas at that time.
After WWII Bridgeport
passed the 2,000 person mark and soon became Wise
County's second city. |
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Architecture
- a rock house in Bridgeport
TE photo February 2004 |
Business totem
TE photo February 2004 |
Water tower near
Bridgeport under construction in 1973
Photo courtesy Clyde
Burns |
Bridgeport water
tower today
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, December 2005 |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and vintage/historic photos, please contact
us. |
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