The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, later absorbed into the New York Central Railroad as part of its Chicago mainline, began serving Bryan in 1869. Due to the New York Central's line between Stryker, Ohio and Butler, Indiana, being both straight and flat, on July 23, 1966, Bryan was a mid-point of a record-setting speed run by a New York Central RDC-3, M-497 Black Beetle, modified with a pair of jet engines. The car reached a speed of , an American rail speed record that still stands today. From 1905 to 1939, Bryan was also the western terminus for the Toledo and Indiana Railway, an interurban that began operation between Toledo and Stryker in 1901.