East Bridgewater is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,794 at the 2010 census.HistoryThe lands that would become East Bridgewater were first settled by Europeans in 1630 as an outgrowth of the Plymouth and Duxbury plantations. It was a part of Olde Bridgewater, as the "East Parish" founded in 1723, until it officially separated from Bridgewater and incorporated on June 14, 1823.The town was located on the northern portion of the Taunton River, and had an economy primarily based on agriculture, though industrial development followed. Iron works in the town provided muskets and cannon for the Colonial armies during the American Revolution. There was more residential development in the late 19th century and early 20th century along the community's rail and trolley lines. The famous bank robber Jack Turner had a brother who owned a home in East Bridgewater during the mid-19th century. It is widely believed that Turner had left his fortune there before he was mistakenly shot by Union agents outside of Richmond, Virginia in 1864. Today, East Bridgewater is mostly known as a residential community.GeographyAccording to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 17.5sqmi, of which 17.2sqmi is land and 0.3sqmi, or 1.49%, is water. East Bridgewater ranks 214th of 351 communities in the Commonwealth in terms of land area, and fifteenth of the twenty-seven communities of Plymouth County. The town is bordered by Whitman to the north, Hanson to the east, Halifax to the southeast, Bridgewater to the south, West Bridgewater to the west, and Brockton to the northwest. East Bridgewater's town center is located twenty-seven miles southeast of Boston.
