Bridgeport, Michigan: Cass River Crossing

Bridgeport sits where an old trail once crossed the Cass River, and the community grew up around that crossing. A post office named Bridgeport opened in eighteen thirty-six. The settlement took its name from the multiple bridges spanning the Cass at this bend, which early residents called Cass Bend or The Bend of the Cass. The township was formally organized in eighteen forty-eight, and the little crossing grew steadily as Saginaw County's river roads tied together the lumber and salt trade of the mid-Michigan interior.