Greater Bridgeport Transit Authority history

Approved, 2 March 1827). Indiana and Illinois were able to get federal land donations that year, which was a mechanism for funding canal construction in both cases.

The next year (1836) the canal commissioners platted the eventual towns of Bridgeport, La Salle, and Lockport.

Before the Chicago and Rock Island railroad opened in 1854, passenger packet boats plied the canal's waters and barges carried a wide variety of goods.

The next major transportation development that came to town after the canal was the Joliet and Chicago railroad, built circa 1855-7 to make a second connection between Chicago and Joliet, as Joliet was quickly becoming a rail hub.

The Joliet & Chicago railroad had opened in 1857.

The Halsted (then called Dyer) street bridge was the next one to be built, which was done in 1860.

The Chicago City Railway Company built a line along Archer Road into Bridgeport in 1864-65, terminating at Halsted initially, then to Deering (Loomis) street, and soon afterward reaching the river.

The Chicago and Western Indiana railroad was put through along the (west side of) the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago railway in 1879.

But by 1881, the state legislature ordered the city to reinstall the pumps to keep the water flowing, as downstate residents were complaining about the rancid condition of the water.

The Halsted street line was extended from Bridgeport to Sixty-third street in 1883-84.

By 1887, there were as many grocers on Halsted street as there were on Archer avenue -- twenty-two on each street.

Beginning in 1892, the Chicago City Railway commenced electrification of some lines.

Later transportation developments By 1920 transportation facilities in Bridgeport were at perhaps their greatest variety and extent.

The Halsted street station remained open as a commuter stop until the 1983-4 season, when it was finally closed due to a lack of ridership. [Note 7]