Bellaire railroad bridge photograph

Panoramic photograph showing trains on a small railroad bridge in the town of Bellaire, Ohio, during the early 20th century. Bellaire, incorporated in 1857, is located at the confluence of McMahon Creek and the Ohio River in Belmont County, Ohio. Bridges spanning the river connect people and railroads to West Virginia. Jacob Davis acquired the land on which the town was eventually laid out in 1802, naming it Bel Air after his home in Maryland. His son, Jacob Davis, Jr., laid out the town in 1834. Multiple variations of the town name were used in the early 19th century: when the first post office was established in 1841 the town was listed as Bell Air, and after 1870, the town was called Bellaire. Several railroads built lines through Bellaire in the 1850s that stimulated the growth of local industries such as coal mining, clay, limestone and glass manufacturing