Question: Which company formally announced in 1894 helped Bridgeport become a major transportation hub in the 1850's?

<P0-S0> The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. <P0-S1>  In Illinois, it ran 96 mi from the Chicago River in Bridgeport, Chicago to the Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru. <P0-S2>  The canal crossed the Chicago Portage and helped establish Chicago as the transportation hub of the United States, before the railroad era. <P0-S3>  It was opened in 1848, its function was largely replaced by the wider and shorter Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in 1900 and it ceased transportation operations with the completion of the Illinois Waterway in 1933. <SEP> <P1-S0> The Bridgeport Traction Company was a streetcar transit company in the area around Bridgeport, Connecticut. <P1-S1>  The company was incorporated in 1893 through the consolidation of the Bridgeport Horse Railroad Company, Bridgeport Railway Company, and the East End Railway Company. <P1-S2>  The East End Railway Company was established in 1895 as the Bridgeport and West Stratford Horse Railroad Company. <P1-S3>  The Bridgeport Horse Railroad Company was incorporated in 1864. <P1-S4>  The Bridgeport Railway Company was formed in 1893. <P1-S5>  At the time, streetcars were a more affordable form of transportation for those commuting between Bridgeport and Norwalk. <P1-S6>  Using streetcars to get to their destination was half the price of using the train. <P1-S7>  In 1899 president Andrew Radel formed a company that was intended to control the world's oyster trade. <SEP> <P2-S0> The Southern Railway (reporting mark SOU) (also known as Southern Railway Company and now known as the current incarnation of the Norfolk Southern Railway) is a name of a class 1 railroad that was based in the Southern United States. <P2-S1>  The railroad is the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894. <SEP> <P3-S0> The Bridgeport Historic District is a historic district in Bridgeport, Alabama. <P3-S1>  Due to the importance of its rail bridge, the town changed hands several times during the course of the Civil War. <P3-S2>  Founded in the 1810s as a farming community, Bridgeport became a major transportation hub with the coming of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad and Southern Railway in the 1850s, in addition to its Tennessee River port. <P3-S3>  Industry began to move into the area in the late 1880s and 1890s, and commercial development of the downtown area soon followed. <P3-S4>  The district retains several one- and two-story commercial buildings, most constructed out of brick in simple styles popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. <P3-S5>  Many of the elite built their homes on Battery Hill, overlooking the river. <P3-S6>  The district contains several Victorian and Queen Anne houses, as well as Bungalows and Vernacular styles. <P3-S7>  The Mission Revival Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railroad depot, three railroad bridges, and three Civil War fortifications are also contained in the district. <P3-S8>  The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.