Bridgeport, AL

Bridgeport is a Jackson County city on the western bank of the Tennessee River, where Guntersville Lake now spreads through the river mile. The community began as a riverboat landing in the 1840s, but fluctuating water levels pushed merchants toward the railroad. A rail bridge followed, and the Bridgeport Depot Museum now occupies the site of the town’s fourth depot, built in 1917. The museum holds railroad memorabilia and local artifacts, while the Siege of Bridgeport still gets a historical reenactment. Bridgeport is an Alabama river town whose story moves from landing, to bridge, to depot, with the water still setting the frame.