I'm guessing there's a power feed on each side because the original Bridgeport one on the right side died. If they removed it there would no longer be support for the X lead screw or an X handle on that side of the machine. They probably gutted the box and just left the shaft connected to the lead screw and handle in place. On that series power feed the shaft for the handle went through the box and coupled to the lead screw about 6" under the table.
My machine had a similar situation when I bought it. However in my case someone had removed the feed box and handle. There were so many parts missing from the assembly it would have cost more than the machine to try to resurrect it. Instead I chose to make an extension shaft and coupling for the existing short lead screw and put on a new manual endplate, bearing, set of dials, and a handle. If you look at the last picture I posted you'll see the new bearing plate, dials, and handle. I got lucky in that a local machine surplus dealer had just bought out a Bridgeport rebuilding shop in Milwaukee. I was able to purchase all the parts I needed for $10.00. The normal retail prices for the items I needed was well over $300.00 and that was over 15 years ago.
One thing to look for is whether you have both metric and Imperial dials on the X and Y feed handles. Mine was also from a local high school. At the time there was somewhat of a push for the machining industry to go metric. Most of the manual lathes and mills sold to the local high schools came with both metric and imperial dials just in case the initiative was successful. Now days no one worries about it. If you have a metric job or an imperial one you just switch the DRO to the preferred measurement scale.
