Bridgewater, Iowa
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1993. It stands in Jackson Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50837. The Survey maps it on the Bridgewater quadrangle. 148 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,220 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBridgewater fell from 182 to 148 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 182 | |
| 2020 | 148 | -34 (-19%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 9 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1954 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1980 USGS Bridgewater quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Creston quadrangle1:100000
- 1993 USGS Creston quadrangle1:100000
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Bridgewater: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
45 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bridgewater in 45 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 28 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 3 flash flood. The reports record 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1999 | Tornado (F4) | Bridgewater | 2 hurt, $1,000,000 | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Flash Flood | Bridgewater | $250,000 | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Flood | Bridgewater | $250,000 | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bridgewater | $75,000 | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Flash Flood | Bridgewater | $50,000 | Several roads were reported covered by water and had to be closed until water receded in southern Adair County. |
| April 1994 | Hail | Bridgewater | $50,000 | no account filed |
| April 1994 | Hail | Bridgewater | $50,000 | no account filed |
| November 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bridgewater | $25,000 | Storm chaser reported a barn lost its roof 1 mile north of Bridgewater along Iowa Highway 92. |
| May 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bridgewater | $25,000 | Numerous 6 inch tree limbs down with hail damage to a house. Siding and roof damage. Hail size unknown but dents in aluminum were quarter to half dollar size. |
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bridgewater | $25,000 | no account filed |
| May 2023 | Hail | Bridgewater | $20,000 | Largest stornes were tennis ball sized and resulted in damage to siding on house. |
| May 2023 | Hail | Bridgewater | $20,000 | Hail fell for about 20 minutes and included damage to siding. |
| May 2013 | Hail | Bridgewater | $15,000 | Hail dented aluminum siding of a house near Bridgewater. |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bridgewater | $15,000 | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bridgewater | $10,000 | EM reported 60 MPH winds with trees blown down. |
| June 2008 | Flash Flood | Bridgewater | $10,000 | Cars were trapped in flooding along on Highway 92. |
| March 2011 | Hail | Bridgewater | $10,000 | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Hail | Bridgewater | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2001 | Hail | Bridgewater | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bridgewater | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 1994 | Hail | Bridgewater | $5,000 | no account filed |
| March 2011 | Hail | Bridgewater | $3,000 | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Bridgewater | $3,000 | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bridgewater | $3,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Bridgewater | $3,000 | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Bridgewater | $3,000 | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Bridgewater | $3,000 | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Bridgewater | $2,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Bridgewater | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Bridgewater | $2,000 | no account filed |
| April 1995 | Hail | Bridgewater | $2,000 | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Tornado (F0) | Bridgewater | $1,000 | Brief touchdown |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bridgewater | $1,000 | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Bridgewater | $1,000 | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Bridgewater | $1,000 | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bridgewater | $1,000 | no account filed |
| June 2021 | Hail | Bridgewater | - | Trained spotter reported large 4 inch irregular shaped hail stone. |
| June 2019 | Hail | Bridgewater | - | Emergency manager reported heavy amounts of dime to nickel sized hail with occasional quarter to half dollar sized hail. |
| June 2019 | Hail | Bridgewater | - | Emergency manager reported quarter sized hail. |
| June 2018 | Hail | Bridgewater | - | Amateur radio operator reported quarter sized hail. |
| June 2018 | Hail | Bridgewater | - | Public reported nickel sized hail. |
| March 2011 | Tornado (EF0) | Bridgewater | - | Tornado near Delta Ave and Highway 92. Brief touchdown. This tornado was from the same parent cell the produced an EF1 tornado in Cass County. |
| March 2025 | Hail | Bridgewater | - | no account filed |
| April 2024 | Hail | Bridgewater | - | no account filed |
| May 2023 | Hail | Bridgewater | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fontanelle | 6.5 miles | 9 | |
| Gilead | 6.7 miles | 9 | |
| Fisk | 8.1 miles | 9 | |
| Berea | 8.9 miles | 9 | |
| Greenfield | 11.8 miles | 10 | |
| Lemont (historical) | 12.2 miles | 10 | |
| Prussia | 12.4 miles | 9 | |
| Linwood | 12.6 miles | 10 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Bridgewater | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2233639 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 454823. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.





