Bellaire, OH

Bellaire is a village in Belmont County, Ohio, United States. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 4,278 at the 2010 census. The village is located along the Ohio River. The Bellaire toll bridge (now abandoned and closed) was filmed in the 1991 motion picture The Silence of the Lambs; its curved railroad viaduct and bridge over the Ohio were featured in the 2010 film Unstoppable.
Eventually Mound Builders occupied the area but it is believed that no permanent settlement was ever within the present day city limits even though Mingoes, Shawnees and Delawares(to a lesser extent) were know to have frequented the area.
The first documented European visitors to the Ohio River Valley were French trappers and priests in the early and mid 1700s where they passed through what is today Bellaire. These trailblazers were impressed with the river's heavily wooded and hilled shores and with the abundance of fish and wildlife.