Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Bridgeport, OH

Bridgeport is a village in Pease Township in eastern Belmont County, sitting on the Ohio River directly across from Wheeling, West Virginia, at the mouth of Wheeling Creek.

Bridgeport carries the nickname 'Gateway to the West' for its historic role as a crossing point on the Ohio River.

Bridgeport was originally named Canton when Colonel Ebenezer Zane laid it out in 1806, and it took its present name from a bridge built near the town site in the 1810s.

Bridgeport's population peaked at 4,853 in 1940 during the coal and steel era, and the 2020 census counted 1,582 residents; the 2010 census recorded 810 households in the village.

Two bridges - the Military Order of the Purple Heart Bridge and part of the Fort Henry Bridge - now link Bridgeport to Wheeling Island, while the old Aetnaville Bridge is closed and the former Bridgeport Bridge was demolished in 2011.

Bridgeport is part of the Wheeling metropolitan area and covers only about 1.38 square miles along the river.

Basketball Hall of Famer John Havlicek, who starred at Ohio State and with the Boston Celtics, is among Bridgeport's notable people, along with Olympic wrestler Bobby Douglas and painter Joseph Henry Sharp.

Bridgeport's climate is a humid river-valley mix, with average July highs around 85 degrees, about 40 inches of precipitation a year, and roughly 21 inches of snow.

The village is served by the Bridgeport Exempted Village School District and has a public library that is a branch of the Belmont County District Library.

Bridgeport's own post office dates back to 1820, and residents are known as Bridgeporters.