RAILROAD HISTORY

Bridgeport, Nebraska

In the early 1900's, railroads were essential transportation.  "Depots are luxuries and produce no revenue," stated a Burlington official in 1925.  However, the nation's transportation history started on the horse but long included a time when any journey that went anywhere began or ended at the local railroad depot.  The railroad monopolized the transportation business up until the development of automobiles and airlines.

There were 750 depots in Nebraska by 1916, most construction had taken place between 1865 and 1927, resulting in a total of 6,000 miles of track.  But consolidation of subsidiary lines left Nebraska with five railroad systems competing for revenue, but the Union Pacific Railroad pushed west through the Platte River Valley and Bridgeport, Nebraska.

The railroad companies found it necessary to establish stations every 8 to 12 miles in order to provide telegraph communication for train operations and refueling.  This approach made any town along the railroad track prosper, increasing incoming settlers and goods, and likewise, making it easy to ship to outside markets.

Railroad officials usually dictated the station building's exact location and townspeople often protested if a depot site was at an inconvenient distance from an established town which is why some towns dissolved and others flourished. 

The first stations that housed an agent were often portable shacks or converted railroad boxcars.  Only when a community had prospered from the railroad were public demands made for an upgrade of the depot facilities, providing more comfort and convenience to a traveler/shipper.  Railroads then established building policies, using one or more sets of "standard plans".  Variations were made in response to a town's individual needs.  A town that provided much revenue for the railroad would obtain the larger and more elaborate depot.

Up until the early 1900s, some railroads equipped their depots with two separate waiting rooms segregated by sex, women and children being spared from the "burly" behavior of men.  Some depots were designed with living quarters for the agent and his family.  Some depots added a separate building for freight storage.

One replacement station plan used during the 1920s differed from the usual design with an I-shaped floor plan, consisting of only the agent's office, waiting rooms and closets.  A variance to the design was located at Bridgeport, Nebraska.  The appearance somewhat resembles an English country house. The photo below indicates a freight storage building had been added but is no longer standing.

RAILROAD STATIONS IN NEBRASKA, An Era of Use And Reuse, (1982) by Reisdorff and Bartels, is an excellent resource book about the history of the railroads in Nebraska and can be checked out at the Bridgeport Public Library.

    Bridgeport Railroad Depot 1979

    Bridgeport Railroad Depot today

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Last updated...
Wednesday, 20 February 2008

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