Albert Wellington Bridge learned early on that logging was a risky living. At the age of only 12, he lost his father to a logging accident. This tragedy inspired him to pursue a degree in medicine. Upon graduating from Vermont Medical School, he moved west, eventually bringing pre-paid healthcare to the woods. It began with an industrial contract with Eatonville Lumber Company employees for a   small monthly premium. He operated the Eatonville   Lumbermen's Hospital in a cottage on Mashell Ave.   and visited the logging camps to treat his patients.

In 1915, Dr. Bridge opened the Bridge Hospital and Pharmacy in this building, with the top floor serving as the hospital and the main floor as the pharmacy. He eventually opened a hospital in downtown Tacoma and by 1930 he had over 14,000 contracted patients spanning several counties. Bridge bequeathed the bulk of his fortune to the founding of Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Tacoma, in honor of his mother. His impacts in the field of medicine reached far and wide but it all began right here in Eatonville.

“But if ever a man had a heart of purest gold, it was Dr. Bridge, and then hid his light under a bushel.”
-V.H. Honeywell, former publisher of The Eatonville Dispatch