The New International Encyclopædia/Bridgeport

BRIDGE′PORT. A city, port of entry, and one of the county-seats of Fairfield County, Conn., on Bridgeport Harbor, an arm of Long Island Sound, at the mouth of the Pequonnock River, 18 miles southwest of New Haven, 56 miles northeast of New York (Map: Connecticut, C 5). It has railroad connections by the New York, New Haven and Hartford and its branches, and steamboats run daily to New York. The city is built mainly on level ground, and occupies an area of about 15 square miles. The elevated section, Golden Hill, affords fine views of the Sound and shore, and is covered with beautiful residences. Black Rock, which forms part of Bridgeport, is a summer resort, its harbor being a popular anchorage ground for yachts. The most notable buildings are the United States post-office and custom-house, the county court-house, the Barnum Memorial Institute, the Burroughs Public Library, the Sterling Widows' Home, the city hospital, and the Young Men's Christian Association Building. There are three fine parks, comprising about 250 acres: Beardsley, Washington, and Seaside; the last, situated on the shore with a sea-wall and a drive two miles long, contains a soldiers' momunent, and statues of Elias Howe and P. T. Barnum. Extensive improvements have been recently undertaken in providing a new railroad depot, and in elevating the railroad-tracks, the project to require eventually the expenditure of about $3,000,000, a part of which is borne by the city.

Bridgeport is an important manufacturing city, and has considerable coasting trade, the harbor being safe and accessible for fairly large vessels. The principal articles manufactured are sewing-machines, corsets, coaches, locomobiles, plush goods, brass, iron, and steel goods, machinery, cartridges, ordnance, and hardware. Some of the factories are of vast size. The Wheeler & Wilson Sewing-Machine Works cover ten acres, and the Union Metallic Cartridge Company has one of the largest establishments in its line in the world.

The city government is vested in a mayor, elected every two years, a municipal council, and the usual administrative departments, all appointed by the executive, and all, excepting that of public works, where the power is given to a single head, governed by boards. The school board, consisting of twelve members, four elected each year for a term of three years, is chosen by popular election. The annual expenditures of the city amount to about $1,000,000, the main items of expense being $60,000 for the police department, $65,000 for the fire department, $55,000 for the street lighting, $60,000 for hospitals, asylums, and other charitable institutions, and $170,000 for schools. Population, in 1880, 27,643; in 1890, 48,866; in 1900, 70,996, including 22,300 persons of foreign birth and 1100 of negro descent.

Bridgeport, first settled in 1665, was known as Pequonnock, 1665-94; Fairtield Village, 1694-1701; and Stratfield, 1701-1800. Until incorporated as the Borough of Bridgeport in 1800, it formed part of Fairfield and of Stratford townships. In 1836 it became a city, and in 1870 it was enlarged by the addition of a part of Fairfield, and in 1899, of Summerfield and West Stratford. Consult Orcutt, A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport (New Haven, 1886).