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Although the area was passed over by early commerce because of the high cost of getting goods over the mountains, by the early 1800's there was activity around the mouth of the Beaver River, and this expanded as up-river dams encouraged manufacturing and the Erie and Ohio Canal was built. Gordon's Gazeteer of Pittsburgh in 1832 listed in Bridgewater: a lime kiln, salt works, brewery, boat yards, patent tub and bucket makers, and several iron foundries. These foundries, the Darragh, L. M. Porter, Anderson, and the Iron Queen, made stoves, iron grate bars, sash weights, and tin, copper, and sheet iron.
This house still stands
at the south end of Market Street in Bridgewater:
Bridgewater
as seen from the Rochester side of the river about 1900.
A familiar scene in Bridgewater
market before the turn of the century.
Today's aging
buildings on Bridge Street
still retain some of their character of days
gone by.