The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Bridgeport (Conn.)

BRIDGEPORT, Conn., city, port of entry and county-seat of Fairfield County, on Long Island Sound, and on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, 54 miles northeast from New York city, 17 miles southwest from New Haven. It is the second city in the State in population. The city and town are coterminous, about 15 square miles in area.

Bridgeport harbor is the estuary of a small river, the Pequonnock, and a tidal inlet, called Yellow Mill Pond, with a peninsula between. The lower part of the harbor is about a mile wide and extends about a mile to the Sound. The two arms of the harbor divide the city into three parts; the main city and chief business centre lies west of the harbor; the section called East Bridgeport with a secondary business street occupies the peninsula; and Summerfield and Newfield sections lie east of the harbor.

Rising from the plain along the Sound are three elevated districts; the nearest, Golden Hill, one of the oldest and finest residential sections, farther back are Old Mill Hill to the northeast and North Bridgeport to the north, both commanding fine views of the Sound. Bridgeport is called “Park City” from its numerous breathing places. The principal parks are Seaside, Beardsley, Washington and Pembroke. Seaside Park contains about 75 acres with a two mile boulevard along the Sound protected by a strong sea-wall. Here are the Soldier's and Sailor's monument and monuments to Elias Howe and Phineas T. Barnum, the sewing machine of the one and the business enterprise of the other having been largely instrumental in the development of the city. Beardsley Park is in the northeastern part of the city and contains about 150 acres, to which river and lakeside, woods and hills give the charm of nature. Washington Park, about four acres, lies in the centre of the east side. Pembroke Park is a long broad green, an expansion of the Old King's highway from New York to Boston. The finest cemetery is Mountain Grove, about 75 acres, near the western boundary. The finest residence sections are Golden Hill, central, Fairfield avenue, the main thoroughfare to the west, Seaside park vicinity in the south, Brooklawn (new) and Clinton avenue in the northwest, Seaview avenue along the Sound in the southeast, and Mill Hill and North Main street with their splendid views. The most notable buildings are the government building, with the post-office and custom house; the Barnum Memorial Institute, bequeathed to the Historical Society and the Scientific Society in common; The Young Men's Christian Association, the Burroughs Library, the Burroughs Home for Women, the Sterling Widows' Home, the Protestant Orphan Asylum and the Bridgeport and Saint Vincent's Hospitals, and a new high school. The public school system has a high school and 25 grammar school buildings. There are about a dozen private and parochial schools. In 1912 the public schools enrolled 15,733 pupils and employed 375 instructors. A free public library established in 1881 now contains about 60,000 volumes. The religious life of the city centres around some 90 churches. The leading denominations are Roman Catholic, Congregational, Protestant Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal, Baptist, Lutheran and Presbyterian. There are many social clubs and secret societies. Chief among the clubs are The Seaside, The Algonquin, The Brooklawn Country Club, The University, The Bridgeport Yacht Club. The oldest Masonic lodge, Saint John's, dates from 1762.

Industries, etc.—Bridgeport is the leading manufacturing city of Connecticut, standing first in the value of products and in the number of employees. It is called the “Industrial Capital.” The manufactured products are in great variety, the diversity is shown by the fact that the Board of Trade has found it literally impossible to make a list of them. New ones are being invented constantly and at least 15,000 articles which may properly be called different have already been counted. Principal among its manufactured articles are cartridges and shells, corsets, sewing machines, heavy ordnance, brass goods, electrical apparatus, silver-plated ware, automobiles, torpedo boats, bicycles, gas and gasoline motors, graphophones, typewriters, machine tools, boilers, cutlery, compressed gas capsules, hats, taps and dies and hardware. Among the largest manufacturing establishments are the Remington Arms and Ammunition Company, whose plant has a combined floor area of 1,104,200 square feet, and employs 16,000 men, Singer Sewing Machine Company (Wheeler & Wilson) with 10 acres of works, Warner Brothers Corset Company, Crane Valve, American Tube and Stamping, Holmes and Edwards Silver-plating, American Graphophone, Union Typewriter Company, Bridgeport Brass Company and the Lake Torpedo Boat Company. The Union Metallic Cartridge Company has an ammunition park of 425 acres here. At the end of 1914 there were in operation 403 establishments capitalized at $81,482,000. These establishments employed 34,586 persons, paid $23,206,000 in salaries and wages and used materials to the value of $44,730,000 which were turned into finished products with a value of $85,123,000. In 1916 the payroll was estimated at $1,200,000 a week, or $62,000,000 for the year. In 1915 new buildings to the value of $9,181,419 were erected, equipped for works of peace as well as for the production of munitions, the demand for which during the European War increased the population of Bridgeport by 50 per cent. The city by its location has excellent transportation facilities. The railroad trackage is ample. A new station has recently been built and the tracks elevated through the city at a cost of over $3,000,000. The harbor admits quite large vessels. There are daily steamers to New York and across the Sound to Port Jefferson, L. I., and much coasting business. The river, creeks and harbor arms are spanned by a half dozen large bridges. Electric railway service is thoroughly developed, continuous lines running to New York and to New Haven, and thence to Boston.

Government and Population.—The government of the city is committed to a mayor, elected every two years, a board of 24 aldermen, 2 from each district, a board of education, 12 members, elected at large 4 members each year, a board of apportionment and taxation, appointed by the mayor. The mayor also appoints members of the police board, board of health, fire commissioners, library board, park commissioners, board of charities, a city engineer and a director of public works. The city's assessed valuation of property is $137,621,212, its debt $1,578,691 and its tax rate about 15 mills per $1,000. The annual outlay is nearly two millions, about a half million being for schools. There are four national banks, five savings banks with deposits of over $30,000,000, two trust companies and a number of private banks. Notwithstanding the proximity of New York the retail business along all lines is extensive. The city has a cosmopolitan population consisting basically of the old New England stock, balanced with the thoroughly Americanized families from Ireland, Germany and Scandinavia. Later additions have been drawn largely from the southern countries of Europe. The growth of population has been as follows: (1810) 1,089; (1820) 1,500; (1830) 2,800; (1840) 3,294; (1850) 7,560; (1860) 13,209; (1870) 18,969; (1880) 27,643; (1890) 48,866; (1900) 70,996; (1910) 102,054; (1914) 115,289; (1916) 160,000.

History.—The first settlement was made in 1639, on lands bought from the Paugusset Indians, who in 1659 were relegated to a reservation on Golden Hill. It was called Pughquannock or Pequonnock, and formed a parish in the towns of Fairfield and Stratford, where the inhabitants went to church till they built their own first one in 1695. In 1694 they petitioned to have it renamed Fairford; the legislature chose Fairfield Village instead; they rejected it and the next year fixed on Stratfield, which, however, was not legalized until 1701. In 1703 the first school building was erected, previous teaching having been in the church on week-days. In 1707 the first services of the Episcopalians were held; in 1748 their first church was built. In 1775 a company from here joined Arnold's expedition to Quebec; and there was much privateering from this place in the Revolution. In 1795 the first newspaper, the American Telegraph, was issued. In 1800 the borough of Bridgeport was incorporated, including the village of Newfield, which had grown up at the waterside, the old settlement being along the Boston and New York turnpike, or “Old Stage Road,” now in part North avenue. In 1806, the first bank, Bridgeport Bank, was organized. In 1821 the town of Bridgeport was set off, having then 1,700 inhabitants, 218 dwellings, 73 stores and warehouses, and an assessed valuation of $24,701. On 28 Sept. 1824 the first steamer ran from Derby past Bridgeport to New York; 16 April 1832, the first Bridgeport steamer, the Citizen, began regular trips. The Housatonic Railroad was opened to New Milford in February 1840; the New York, New Haven and Hartford began running to Fairfield, 2 Sept. 1848, to New York, 1 Jan. 1849. This ushered in the period of real city development, 1850-60. Gas was introduced December 1861; water, 1854-55; P. T. Barnum bought large tracts of land in East Bridgeport and opened it up after 1850; in 1856 the Wheeler & Wilson Company removed here from Watertown and greatly enlarged their plant; the Howe Company came in 1863, and the Union Metallic Cartridge Company in 1865. In 1870 the city annexed a part of Fairfield; in 1899 Summerfield, and West Stratford across Pembroke Lake. Consult Orcutt's ‘History of Stratford and Bridgeport’ (New Haven 1886); Waldo, ‘The Standard's History of Bridgeport’ (Bridgeport 1897).