The Bridgeport Historic District is a historic district in Bridgeport, Alabama. Founded in the 1810s as a farming community, Bridgeport became a major transportation hub with the coming of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad and Southern Railway in the 1850s, in addition to its Tennessee River port. Due to the importance of its rail bridge, the town changed hands several times during the course of the Civil War. Industry began to move into the area in the late 1880s and 1890s, and commercial development of the downtown area soon followed. The district retains several one- and two-story commercial buildings, most constructed out of brick in simple styles popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of the elite built their homes on Battery Hill, overlooking the river. The dist