Bellaire is a village in Belmont County along the Ohio River. Wheeling, West Virginia is across the river to the east. The first big boost for growth came with the construction of the Central Ohio Railway in 1853, later absorbed by the Baltimore and Ohio, and the Stone Viaduct Bridge (opened in 1871) that carried it to Wheeling, West Virginia. The town was renamed Bellaire by the railroad company.

Fun Facts

The Bellaire toll bridge (now abandoned and closed) was filmed in the 1991 motion picture The Silence of the Lambs.

The curved railroad viaduct and bridge over the Ohio, the B & O Railroad Viaduct, were featured in the 2010 film Unstoppable and is a registered historic structure.

Bellaire is the hometown of Sol White, baseball infielder and manager in the minor leagues and Negro leagues, sportswriter, and member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Bellaire gained the title of "Glass City" for the period of 1870 to 1885. Some of the glass-making facilities of the time were Belmont Glass Works, Bellaire Window Glass Company, Rodefer-Gleason Glass Company, Star Glass Works, National Glass Manufacturing Company, Bellaire Goblet Works, Union Window Glass Company, and Enterprise Window Glass Company. In the next decade, the list also included the Bellaire Bottle Company, the Century Glass Company, and the Imperial Glass Company.