History of Bridgeport, Connecticut
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The history of Bridgeport, Connecticut:
Contents |
[edit] Early years
Bridgeport was originally a part of the township of Stratford. The first settlement here was made in 1659. It was called Pequonnock until 1695, when its name was changed to Stratfield, due to its location between the already existing towns of Stratford and Fairfield. During the American Revolution it was a center of privateering. In 1800 the borough of Bridgeport was chartered, and in 1821 the township was incorporated. The city was not chartered until 1836.
Bridgeport's early years were marked by a reliance on fishing and farming, much like other towns in New England. The city's location on the deep Black Rock Harbor fostered a boom in shipbuilding and whaling in the mid-19th century, especially after the opening of a railroad to the city in 1840. The city rapidly industrialized in the late-19th century, and became a manufacturing center producing such goods as the famous Bridgeport milling machine, brass fittings, carriages, sewing machines,saddles, and ammunition.
[edit] Abraham Lincoln's visit
| 1830 | 2,800 |
| 1840 | 4,570 |
| 1850 | 7,560 |
| 1860 | 13,299 |
| 1870 | 19,835 |
| 1880 | 29,148 |
| 1890 | 48,866 |
| 1900 | 70,996 |
| 1910 | 102,054 |
| 1920 | 143,555 |
| 1930 | 146,716 |
| 1940 | 147,121 |
| 1950 | 158,709 |
| 1960 | 156,748 |
| 1970 | 156,542 |
| 1980 | 142,546 |
| 1990 | 141,686 |
| 2000 | 139,529 |
| 2002 | 140,104 (est.)[1] |
In February of 1860, Abraham Lincoln came east to speak at Cooper Union in New York City, where on February 27 he impressed eastern Republicans as an intelligent, dignified statesman and gained support in his bid for the presidential nomination. Since the speech went over well, he made several others (all similar to his Cooper Union speech) in Connecticut and Rhode Island, traveling by train to various cities. After stopping in Providence, Norwich, Hartford, Meriden and New Haven, he made his final speech in the evening of Saturday, March 10, in Bridgeport.[2]
His train was scheduled to stop at 10:27 a.m. in Bridgeport, and he likely met with Republican leaders. "He was entertained at the home of Mr. Charles F. Wood at 67 Washington Avenue, and it is said that there he had his first experience with New England fried oysters," wrote Nelson R. Burr in Abraham Lincoln: Western Star Over Connecticut. "Another tradition is that while he stayed in Bridgeport a little girl, Mary A. Curtis of Stratford, presented him with a bouquet of flowers and a bunch of salt hay from the Stratford meadows. ... Where the flowers came from at that season, and how the hay could be cheerfully green, is not explained."[3]
Lincoln spoke in Washington Hall, an auditorium at what was then Bridgeport City Hall (now McLevy Hall), at the corner of State and Broad streets. Not only was the largest room in the city packed, but a crowd formed outside made up of people who couldn't get in. He received a standing ovation before taking the 9:07 p.m. train that night back to Manhattan.[3][4] A plaque now stands at the site in Bridgeport where he gave the speech. (In 2006, just across the street, in the Polka Dot Playhouse, President George W. Bush spoke before a small, selected group of Connecticut business people and officials about health care reform.)
[edit] Later history
Perhaps the city's most famous resident has been circus-promoter and once-mayor P.T. Barnum, who built three houses in the city and housed his circus in-town during winters.
By 1930 Bridgeport was a thriving industrial center with more than 500 factories and a booming immigrant population.
Like other urban centers in Connecticut, Bridgeport fared less well during the deindustrialization of the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. Unemployment rose, crime soared, and the city became known for a large drug problem and also for having an exploding AIDS rate. Many former-industrial sites within the city were discovered to be heavily-polluted, leaving the city with extensive environmental costs and damage. Other sites were simply abandoned and left to burn down, leaving some areas of the city resembling ghost towns.
In the early 21st century, Bridgeport is rebounding after a loss of jobs and population, and is transitioning into a role as a center of service industries and as an outlying region of the New York metropolitan area (for example, the city itself is an oasis of relatively low-cost housing in an otherwise extremely expensive region). It remains the largest city in the state of Connecticut, although it is often ignored or overlooked by residents of the state.
The city was home to the Frisbie Pie Company, and therefore it has been argued that Bridgeport is the birthplace of the frisbee.[5]
In 1987, the L'Ambiance Plaza residential project, which was under construction at the time, collapsed, killing 28 construction workers.
In July 2007, an episode of the television program Extreme Makeover, in which a family home is torn down and rebuilt, was filmed in Bridgeport.[6]
[edit] Historical pictures
 Downtown, about 1910 |
 Bank building, 1916 |
 High School, about 1910 |
 Ringling Brothers Circus headquarters, about 1911 |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Secretary of the State of Connecticut
- ^ Holzer, Harold, Lincoln at Cooper Union, (Simon & Schuster: Neew York), 2004 Chapter 8: "Unable to Escape This Toil," p. 201 ISBN 0-7432-2466-3
- ^ a b Burr, Raymond F., Abraham Lincoln: Western Star Over Connecticut, Lithographics Inc., Canton, Connecticut (no year given), pages 1 and 15; book contents reprinted by permission of the Lincoln Herald, (Harrogate, Tennessee) Summer, Fall and Winter, 1983 and Spring and Summer, 1984
- ^ Holzer, Harold, Lincoln at Cooper Union, (Simon & Schuster: Neew York), 2004 Chapter 8: "Unable to Escape This Toil," p. 201 ISBN 0-7432-2466-3
- ^ Central High School - Bridgeport Frisbie
- ^ Dalena, Doug, "House call: Area firms pitch in for one 'Extreme Makeover'", article in The Advocate of Stamford, Connecticut, July 28, 2007, pp 1, A4, Norwalk edition
