Outdoor group albumen CDV. Bridgeport, Alabama, circa 1861-1865. Period pencil inscription to mount verso reads: "Bridge at Bridgeport / Ala." Mount recto features a wavy green border. 

A shot of two men, one in uniform and one in civilian clothes, standing on the carriage way underneath the trestle railroad bridge at Bridgeport, Alabama, crossing the Tennessee River. The man in uniform is balancing a rifle against his leg. 

When the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad company came to then-Jonesville in 1852, the bridge was built two years later to accommodate the influx of trains. This bridge could spin 90 degrees to open up the waterways and allow boats to pass on both sides. Jonesville then changed its name to Bridgeport after the bridge was completed, connecting the town to Chattanooga. 

During the Civil War, there were several skirmishes in and around Bridgeport. Most notably, after the Battle of Shiloh, Gen. Ormsby Mitchel (1809/10-1862) led his Union troops through Bridgeport and seized the town and, ultimately, the bridge. In 1863, after fighting over the area for months, Confederate troops burned the town and the bridge while retreating. 

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