New Year’s Day in 1922

On our recent New Year’s Day I got to wondering what life was like in Bridgeville one hundred years ago. Thanks to old maps, the Polk Directory, photographs, and newspaper clippings we can piece together a reasonable picture of those days. According to the Census, Bridgeville’s population in 1920 was 3,095; ten years later it had reached 3,939. In 1922 it probably was around 3,300. James Wagner’s famous July 1922 photograph “Bridgeville from the Clouds” accurately provides a detailed aerial view of the community. These were prosperous times, especially to the eyes of the middle-aged folks who had witnessed massive…