Bridgeport Overview

Bridgeport, Connecticut's largest city, is known as "The Park City" was the city that Barnum built. Phineas Taylor Barnum you know him better as P.T. was the showman turned mayor who made this port city into a major manufacturing center during the early 19th century. By the time his term ended, Bridgeport was well known throughout the United States and the world. Barnum was involved in every aspect of the everyday life of the city. In particular, he spent a lot of his energy improving the steamboat industry since Bridgeport was already an important hub of transportation. In 1883 Barnum went to England to buy an enormous elephant called "Jumbo" for his circus. However P.T. Barnum's star attraction would be Charles S. Stratton, "General Tom Thumb"--who was born in Bridgeport. The Barnum Museum exhibits colorful circus memorabilia and celebrates the creator of the Greatest Show on Earth. Barnum laid out parks and roads and even designed Mountain Grove Cemetery where he is buried. Some of his achievements included bringing in Elias Howe and his Singer sewing machines, and building and donating The Barnum Museum to the city. Bridgeport was also the home of the original Frisbee Pie whose plate is now better known than the pie it contained.

The Remington Corporation's global headquarters was created on August 9, 1867, when the Union Metallic Cartridge Company was incorporated which became Remington U.M.C. in 1912. It was particularly noted for its development of metallic cartridges and supplying ammunition for the Russian Revolution and World War II. The Remington Arms and Union Metallic Cartridge Company was said to be the largest structure of the time under one roof, broke records also for being built under breakneck speed, being built in essentially only eight months. The shot tower is now used by Bridgeport Habitat as its lock-up. Because of its strategic importance, NIKE bases (dismantled in the early 90's) were built in neighboring communities to protect the city. Now Remington is known for its electric razors. Yet another example of how over the years Bridgeport has transitioned from an industrial to a service based economy.

The city, the most populous in the state, is a port on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Pequonnock River. Black Rock Harbor is a deep, protected harbor that developed as a trade port and shipbuilding center in the 18th century. Black Rock was once part of Fairfield, but now is a neighborhood of the city of Bridgeport. Settled in 1639, it was first known as Newfield and later as Stratfield. In 1800 it was incorporated as a borough and named Bridgeport for the first drawbridge over the river.

Bridgeport's advantageous geographic location, situated around an excellent harbor on the Long Island Sound, encouraged the early settlers to shift from agrarian to mercantile and manufacturing pursuits. It grew from a whaling center into an industrial center after the opening of the railroad in 1840. In the 19th century Bridgeport's industries produced carriages, brass and cast-iron fittings, sewing machines, tools, saddlery, and ammunition. The first electric light socket with a pull chain was patented by Harvey Hubbell of Bridgeport, CT in 1896. This design is still in use. By the 1930s the community had almost 500 manufacturing firms. In the late 20th century Bridgeport remained a manufacturing center, producing electrical and transportation equipment, plastics, and machine tools however the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs left many unemployed. Bridgeport also had problems with unemployment, pollution, drugs, and crime in its inner-city neighborhoods.