Boarded up storefronts sit along Alabama Avenue in downtown Bridgeport, Ala.
Staff Photo by Jake Daniels/Chattanooga Times Free PressBRIDGEPORT, Ala.-Standing behind the counter of her cluttered sporting goods store, Kendal Storey is not surprised to learn that her town is one of the tri-state area’s shrinking cities.
Bear Bryant portraits on the shop’s wall outnumber the cars passing on the street downtown. The town’s single stoplight, which used to control flowing traffic, now only flashes yellow for the occasional car.
“It’s kind of gotten smaller as it goes on,” she said.
Funerals and Civil War re-enactments are about the only action in town, she said.
According to 2010 census figures, Bridgeport lost 300 residents, or about 11.4 percent of its population, since the 2000 census. The town’s service station recently shut down, joining the row of other boarded-up buildings downtown.