Lake Bridgeport

The watershed of the West Fork of the Trinity River is fed by a large acreage located in Jack and Wise Counties. This flows southeastward downriver toward Tarrant and Dallas Counties where is eventually merges with the Clear, Elf and East Forks, collecting water from Tarrant, Parker, Denton, Cooke, Dallas and other surrounding counties. Throughout recorded history of the area, with extended, heavy rainy seasons, the abundance of water has long attracted the Native Americans and pioneers to this area. After another devastating flood caused by the Trinity River in 1922 that caused 37 deaths and more than $3 million in damages in the Tarrant County area, flood control was initiated on the West Fork of the Trinity River in Tarrant and Wise counties. In 1927, it was decided that tow flood control dams near Bridgeport and Eagle Mountain would alleviate the problem. Work on the Bridgeport Dam, creating Bridgeport Reservoir (now Lake Bridgeport), began in 1930. Due to severe unemployment caused by the depression, the lake construction project provided much needed work and income. Entire families camped in the future basin of the lake and cleared timber, mostly with hand tools. The reservoir was completed in September 1931 with impounding of water on April 1, 1932, now covering more than 11,000 acres of lake surface area. With the completion of Lake Bridgeport and others, Trinity River flooding was not eliminated but has been greatly contained. Water from the lake is used as a municipal water source by most of Wise County and continues to be a resource for agriculture, industrial, and recreational use.