Bridgeport
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a consolidated town and city, and one of the county-seats of Fairfield co., Conn.; on Long Island Sound, at the mouth of the Pequonnock river, and on the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad; 18 miles S. W. of New Haven. The city is built on a plain on each side of the river, the E. portion being named East Bridgeport, and the W., lying back of the plain, rising to an elevation of about 70 feet above high water, is known as Golden Hill, and contains many elegant residences. There are public parks, the most attractive of which is Seaside Park on the shore, having a sea-wall and a picturesque drive, and containing a Soldiers' Monument and a statue of Elias Howe. The portion of the city known as Black Rock is a much frequented resort during the summer months. Bridgeport contains many churches and chapels, a well endowed public library, and many other public buildings. Among these are a United States Government building, containing the postoffice and custom-house departments; the County Court House; a Ý. M. C. A. building; the Barnum Memorial Institute, bequeathed jointly to the Historical and Scientific Societies; several hospitals, and an orphan asylum and widows' home. The city is noted for its large manufacturing interests, and is the seat of the Singer sewing machine, the Union Metallic Cartridge works, the Remington Arms Co., and many other establishments of the first class. During the World War Bridgeport was one of the chief manufacturing centers of the country. The principal manufactures besides those mentioned are carriages, furniture, bicycles, bronze, cutlery, wire, silk, corsets, 14,323. brass goods and other commodities. In 3 National banks. 1919 there were Bridgeport was settled in 1670, under the name of Fairfield village, and was incorporated as a city in 1836. Pop. (1910) 102,054; (1920) 143,555.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921, Bridgeport was riding the boom that had come with the World War: 143,555 people, the Singer sewing machine works, the Union Metallic Cartridge and Remington Arms plants, and a long list of factories turning out corsets, carriages and brass. The factories are essentially all gone — arms and sewing-machine production left the city in the later 20th century — and in 1991 Bridgeport tried to file for municipal bankruptcy, a petition a federal judge dismissed on the ground that the city was not insolvent. Population has scarcely budged in a hundred years: roughly 148,000 at the 2020 census, still the largest city in Connecticut, but now a commuter and service town rather than a workshop. Two details in the entry are also obsolete: Connecticut abolished county government in 1960, so there is no county seat to be, and the Barnum Institute survives as a museum of P. T. Barnum, the showman who was once the city's mayor.
Written for this edition, 2026.