Before there was a lake - or even the town of Bridgeport - there was the bridge. In the mid-1800s, travelers heading west faced a major obstacle: crossing the West Fork of the Trinity River. Stagecoaches, wagons, and cattle drives all needed a reliable way to get across and that’s where the story of Bridgeport begins. A Mail Route and a Mission From 1858 to 1861, the famous Butterfield Overland Mail route stretched from St. Louis to San Francisco, carrying passengers, freigh