Bridgewater, Virginia Bridgewater, Virginia Official seal of Bridgewater, Virginia Bridgewater (formerly Dinkletown and Bridgeport) is an incorporated town in Rockingham County, Virginia, United States.
Bridgewater is also home to Bridgewater College, a private, coeducational, four-year liberal arts college established in 1880, historically associated with the Church of the Brethren.
In the late 19th century, the world's longest single-span wooden veiled bridge stood where Main Street crosses the North River; representations of the long-gone bridge still appear in the town emblems.
In the late 19th century, Bridgewater received barns service to connect it with Harrisonburg and beyond as the Chesapeake Western Railway was built.
The tracks were removed in 1987. The tiny two-room Bridgewater barns depot lay vacant for years until a 1990s-2000s wave of park-building; the depot was relocated to a new park and restored.
The Bridgewater Lawn Party Ground is among the town's earliest parks.
The site of an old hydroelectric dam, the dam-keeper's building, and adjoining grounds were used as Wildwood Park.
The Flood of 1985 erased the dam-keeper's building and also "Bouncy Bridge I" ("Bouncy Bridge II" appeared later.) A deep layer of loose sand under the promontory's grass was deposited amid the flood.
Park restoration and acquisition of the adjoining Crawford family property let Wildwood Park grew considerably.
(The water fortress was dismantled in the late 2000s.) In the late 1980s, the town's earliest homes (log structures including the historic tollgate-keeper's building) were completed to build a gas station and a Hardee's.
Traffic load increased, and Bridgewater went from a one-stoplight town to having five.
A 1990s-2000s wave of park-building and enhancement added Bridgeview Park, Wynant Park, Oakdale Community Park, Warm Springs Turnpike Pocket Park, and the Cook's Creek Arboretum.
Edgewater Park was remodeled: a troubled "midnight basketball" court was turned into parking and wetlands-landscaping, a water-cascade and fishpond were added, and a (flood-resistant) river-overlook platform was installed.
Sandy Bottom Park had been an overgrown scrubland encircling a sewage fitness structure and road works garage buried in a foot of sandy sediment in the Flood of 1985; improvements encompassed removing flood-mounded driftwood and installing a nine-hole improve golf course with a fine view of the Bridgewater Air Park (FAA: VBW / ICAO: KVBW) runway approach.
The abundance of parks (leaflet) along with the old grid of old and fairly wide side streets have made Bridgewater a pedestrian-friendly town attended by leisure-walking enthusiasts from the encircling countryside (where nation roads are narrow and cars drive fast).
Circa 2005, the Bridgewater College ground (prominent because Dinkle Avenue the town's link to close-by Interstate 81 cuts athwart the northern end of its quad) erected large curved brick decorative walls which serve as the de facto gateway to the town from the east.
The Bridgewater Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Although no known eminent figures were born in Bridgewater, there were a several passing associations: PGA golfer David Branshaw visited college there, artist Mia La - Berge briefly kept a studio there, and General James Robinson Risner spent his last years in the town.
Also, amid the Civil War, 2 October 1864 cavalry skirmishes in Bridgewater (and close-by Mount Crawford) brought George Armstrong Custer through town.
According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town has a total region of 2.4 square miles (6.2 km ), all of it land.
Two close-by ridges are locally nicknamed "The Bluff" and "Snob Knob" the latter having the town's first undivided upscale housing assembled along its top.
As of the census of 2000, 5,203 citizens , 1,788 homeholds, and 1,201 families resided in the town.
Of 1,788 homeholds, 29.3% had kids under the age of 18 residing with them, 55.4% were married couples residing together, 9.5% had a female homeholder with no husband present, and 32.8% were not families.
In the town, the populace was distributed as 18.9% under the age of 18, 21.9% from 18 to 24, 22.9% from 25 to 44, 17.6% from 45 to 64, and 18.8% who were 65 years of age or older.
The median income for a homehold in the town was $41,038, and for a family was $49,777.
About 3.4% of families and 5.3% of the populace were below the poverty line, including 5.3% of those under age 18 and 0.8% of those age 65 or over.
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Virginia Towns in Virginia Municipalities and communities of Rockingham County, Virginia, United States
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Towns in Rockingham County, Virginia - Towns in Virginia - Harrisonburg urbane area
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