The Bridge Opens Doors To Education, Careers In Bridgeport
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BRIDGEPORT -- Hundreds of residents flocked to Bridgeport High School Thursday evening for the opening of The Bridge, a 31,000-square-foot facility designed to expand educational opportunities while creating new connections with the community.
The facility opened just ahead of the 2026-27 school year after 896 days of work following the district’s receipt of a $13.8 million Appalachian Community Innovation Center grant.
The Bridge includes expanded science, technology, engineering and mathematics labs as well as additional classroom space for College Credit Plus programming. The facility also will allow community members to use its spaces for training and credentialing programs outside of school hours.
"This impact is more than a building. When you think about the partners that we’ve brought in from WVU Medicine to TE Learning Center to the gym upstairs to the coffee shop. This impact for Bridgeport is $16.1 million, and it’s more than construction," Bridgeport Exempted Village School District Superintendent Brent Ripley said. "When you think about the impact economically for Bridgeport, think about what kind of increase this is not just for us, but for WVU Medicine, for the dental provider who we will have wrapped up here, hopefully very soon, to the coffee shop [Giacinta’s at the Bridge] to TE Learning Center, to the dog pound upstairs. It’s more than just school. This is our commitment to how we can serve the community as a district."
The "dog pound" is an extensive exercise gym on the second floor of the building above a basketball court that also can be used for volleyball and pickleball.
Ripley said Bridgeport has needed additional spaces for community use for some time.
"What a better place than for the school district to say, 'let us serve you, rather than just asking for levy money all the time.' We get a chance to give back as a school district," Ripley said.
Ripley said every high school student will participate in either the College Credit Plus program or a Career Technical Education pathway, giving students the opportunity to earn college credit or train for a career.
He said students may begin a career pathway and later decide they do not want to pursue that particular career.
Middle school students also will be exposed to different careers to give them an idea of what they might want to pursue in high school.
Ripley said the CTE program can help students determine whether a career is right for them before spending thousands of dollars on college education.
"We’ve opened up pathways with West Liberty, Wheeling University, Belmont College, and Ohio University Eastern," Ripley said. "We’ve expanded the outreach of what we can do educationally for kids. A lot of our teachers teach College Credit Plus, and now we’ve added five additional classroom spaces and at night the community can come use these rooms for credentialing and training, so they can get trained for jobs if they want to advance their careers."
The Bridge also includes space for WVU Medicine, TE Learning Center, a dental provider and Giacinta’s at the Bridge coffee shop.
Ohio state Rep. Ron Ferguson said the project has been a long process. When it began, his daughter was an infant. She now is preparing to start preschool.
Ferguson said projects such as The Bridge require dedicated community leaders, praising Ripley and the school board for continuing to push the project forward.
He said that after attending The Bridge’s grand opening, he planned to attend Indian Creek School District’s Jefferson County Community Innovation Center event.
Although Indian Creek is Ferguson’s alma mater, he said he chose to attend Bridgeport’s ribbon-cutting first because of his relationship with Ripley.
Ferguson joked that Ripley contacted him so frequently seeking support for the project that he eventually had to draw the line when Ripley supposedly called him on Christmas morning.
"I’m kidding, he didn’t call me on Christmas morning. But he is such a great advocate for Bridgeport. The board members are fantastic and I’ve gotten to know so many of them so well," Ferguson said. "The community deserves this. When you're from this area, we know that it’s more than just Bridgeport. It’s Blaine, it’s Wolfhurst, it’s Lansing, it’s all these small communities. That’s what it’s like to grow up in Eastern Ohio. It’s all of these small communities that pour in, and the people behind it."
Ferguson said he is grateful The Bridge is located in Bridgeport and expects the community to make the most of the facility.