  RX J0209.6-7427 is an X-ray source in the Magellanic Bridge that was first
detected in 1993, but not seen again till 2019. It has been identified as a
member of the Be/X-ray binary class, a category of objects that are well
established as bright, often-unpredictable transients. Such systems are rarely
known in the Bridge, possibly because they lie outside the area most commonly
studied by X-ray telescopes. Whatever the reason for the sparse number of such
systems in the Bridge, they can provide useful tools for trying to understand
the result of the tidal dynamics of the two Magellanic Clouds. In this paper
the nature of the object is explored with the help of new data obtained during
the latest outburst. In particular, the first optical spectrum of the
counterpart is presented to help classify the star, plus measurements of the
Balmer emission lines over several years are used to investigate changes in the
size and structure of the circumstellar disk.
