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Welcome to Bridgeport
Fairfield County
Connecticut
School Information
Detailed Town Statistics
Summary Town Statistics
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is a city located in southeastern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States and is the largest and poorest city by population in Connecticut. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 139,529 people. The city is considered to be part of the greater New York metropolitan area. Bridgeport is nicknamed the The Park City.
The city has two hospitals, Bridgeport Hospital and St. Vincent's Medical Center.
History
Early years
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.
Later history
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 towns located in the Greater Bridgeport area are Ansonia, Derby, Easton, Fairfield, Milford, Monroe, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton, Stratford, Trumbull and Westport.
Twenty-first century
On September 11, 2001, two Bridgeport residents died in the terrorist massacres of that day: Kiran Reddy Gopu, 24, at the World Trade Center, and the Rev. Francis E. Grogan, 76, a passenger on United Flight 175.[4]
Urban Renewal
Like other northeastern cities that have fallen on hard times, Bridgeport is often identified as a suitable candidate for urban renewal. Most talk of urban renewal centers on a fifty-acre peninsula in Bridgeport Harbor, known as Steel Point. One proposal called for Las Vegas developer Steve Wynn to build a large casino on the property, but for a variety of reasons, that project failed to materialize. More recently, the City of Bridgeport has taken steps to acquire the last remaining parcels in private hands. Present plans call for the investment of approximately $1 billion to create a mixed-use development with several thousand apartments and condominiums and approximately 1 million square feet of retail space. The designated developer is Midtown Equities LLC of New York City.
In addition, more than 20 historic buildings in the downtown core, including the Art Deco City Trust Building and the late 19th Century Arcade Mall & Hotel, are in the process of being renovated to include residential units and retail spaces by Urban Green Builders of New York City.
One obstacle to urban renewal is Bridgeport's property tax regime. Tax rates in the city are among the highest in the country [citation needed].
Culture
Popular culture
Barnum Museum
Bridgeport is quite marked by its attachment to famed resident, circus-promoter and once-mayor P.T. Barnum. Barnum built three houses in the city, and housed his circus in-town during winters.
Bridgeport was home to the Frisbie Pie Company. Because of this connection, it has been argued that Bridgeport is the birthplace of the frisbee[3].
The city was mentioned at the beginning of Mark Twain's novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court:
‘At the end of an hour we saw a far-away town sleeping in a valley by a winding river; and beyond it on a hill, a vast gray fortress, with towers and turrets, the first I had ever seen out of a picture.
‘“Bridgeport?” said I, pointing.
‘“Camelot,” said he.’
Bridgeport is mentioned occasionally on shows focusing on guns and ammunitions from the late 19 to the mid 20th centuries.
Theater
• Downtown Cabaret Theatre
• Playhouse on the Green theater with plays and varied musical events
Museums, Zoos & Parks
As befits his in-town legend, the Barnum Museum is headquartered in Bridgeport. The city is also home to the Discovery Museum and Planetarium, which emphasizes exhibits on science, as well as the Housatonic Museum of Art, located at Housatonic Community College, which has the largest collection of art of any two-year college in the country, thanks to a sizable grant from Burt Chernow.
The Beardsley Zoo is also located in Bridgeport, and is the only zoological center in the entire state of Connecticut.
Sports
The recently-built Arena at Harbor Yard serves as the city's sports and hospitality center. Its high success has drawn business away from competitor sites in New Haven and Hartford. Seating 10,000, the Arena serves as the home rink of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers AHL hockey team, as well as the home court of the Fairfield University's basketball team.
The Ballpark at Harbor Yard serves as a minor-league baseball stadium, and was built in 1998 to serve as the homefield of the Bridgeport Bluefish. It is located downtown on a former brownfield site. It is visually prominent to commuters on I-95 or on passing trains.
Kennedy Stadium serves as a community sports facility.
Fairfield University is technically located in the neighboring town of Fairfield, and many of the athletic teams play on campus. Only the men's and women's basketball teams play in Bridgeport.
Railroad and ferries
The Modern-Looking Bridgeport Station is served a part of intermodal transit hub
The city is connected to nearby New York City by both Amtrak and Metro-North commuter trains. Many residents commute to New York jobs on these trains, and the city to some extent is developing as an outpost of New York-based workers seeking cheaper rents and larger living spaces. Connecting service is also available to Waterbury via Metro-North, and New Haven via Amtrak and Metro-North.
A ferry service runs from Bridgeport across Long Island Sound to Port Jefferson, New York; the ferry transports both automobiles and passengers.
Notable people, past and present
Perhaps Bridgeport's most famous resident from the past is P.T. Barnum, the circus promoter who also served as mayor of the city. A brief summary, mentioning some of the Bridgeporters who achieved fame far outside the city would include actors Robert Mitchum and Brian Dennehy, and the actor and comedian Richard Belzer who once worked as a reporter for The Connecticut Post
Other notable Bridgeporters include Henry A. Mucci, who led the raid that rescued survivors of the Bataan Death March in World War II, and baseball players *George "Kiddo" Davis, who had 7 hits in the 1933 World Series, helping the New York Giants win the championship, and Jim O'Rourke, the first player to be credited with a hit and single in a professional baseball game.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Bridgeport, Connecticut”.
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