Toll Bridge & Old Bridgeport

The bridge was Bridgeport's reason to exist. The Handbook of Texas says it began in February 1860, when a group organized by William H. Hunt secured a charter for a span over the West Fork as part of the Butterfield route, and that Pierce Woodward suggested the town's name. The Civil War ended the mail line and the wooden bridge collapsed. The place stayed rural until 1873, when a new iron bridge carried supplies from Decatur to Fort Richardson, and a post office opened that May. When Rock Island tracks arrived in 1893 the town moved a mile east.

What the plaque says

Toll Bridge & Old Bridgeport When Butterfield Overland Mail traversed this area (1858-61) on St. Louis to San Francisco route, a crossing over West Fork of the Trinity was a necessity. Colonel W. H. Hunt on February 11, 1860, obtained a charter and built a toll bridge here (50 yards west). The Overland Mail ceased operating as Civil War began. The bridge soon collapsed. However, a settlement had begun here, and in 1873 Charles Cates, a Decatur merchant, spanned the river with an iron bridge. When the Rock Island Railroad built to this point in 1893, town moved but retained historic name. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wise County Courthouse — 12 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's granite Romanesque courthouse of 1895-96 in Decatur, built after fire destroyed the Second Empire courthouse and set off a fight over the county seat.
• Fort Richardson State Park and Historic Site — 21 mi
  The northernmost post of the Texas frontier line, outside Jacksboro, where a stone hospital and six other buildings stand from 1867 and a later Guard unit became the Lost Battalion.

More markers nearby

• Bridgeport Coal Mines — 1.7 mi
• Hunt, Col. William Hudson — 2.0 mi
• Republic of Texas' Santa Fe Expedition in Wise County — 3.0 mi
• Lake Bridgeport WWII Training Site — 4.7 mi