History of Bridgeport, Connecticut / History of towns in United States

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Country: United States
State: Connecticut
County: Fairfield
City: Bridgeport
Population (2010):
• City 144,229
• Estimate (2013): 147,216
• Rank US: 172nd
• Density 8,720.9/sq mi (3,354/km2)
• Urban 923,311 (US: 48th)
• Metro 939,904 (US: 57th)
The first documented English settlement within the present city limits of Bridgeport took place in 1644, centered at Black Rock Harbor along North Avenue and between Park and Briarwood Avenues. The place was called Pequonnock (Quiripi for "Cleared Land"), after a band of the Paugussett, a Native American people who then occupied this area. One of their sacred sites was Golden Hill, which overlooked the harbor and was the location of natural springs and their planting fields. (It has since been blasted through for an expressway.) The Golden Hill Indians were granted a reservation here by the Colony of Connecticut in 1639 that survived until 1802. (It exists today in adjoining Trumbull.)
Bridgeport's early years were marked by residents' reliance on fishing and farming, not altogether different from the economy of the Native Americans, who had cultivated corn, beans, and squash and fished and gathered shellfish from both the river and sound. A village called Newfield began to coalesce around the corner of State and Water Streets in the 1760s. The area officially became known as Stratfield in 1695 or 1701 due to its location between the already existing towns of Stratford and Fairfield. During the American Revolution, Newfield Harbor was a center of privateering.
By the time of the State of Connecticut's ratification of the American constitution in 1781, many of the local farmers held shares in vessels trading at Newfield Harbor or had begun trading in their own name. Newfield initially expanded around the coasting trade with Boston, New York, and Baltimore and the international trade with the West Indies. The commercial activity of the village was clustered around the wharves on the west bank of the Pequonnock, while the churches were erected inland on Broad Street. In 1800, the village became the Borough of Bridgeport, the first so incorporated in the state. It was named for the Newfield or Lottery Bridge across the Pequonnock, connecting the wharves on its east and west banks. Bridgeport Bank was established in 1806. In 1821, the township of Bridgeport became independent of Stratford.
The West India trade died down around 1840, but by that time the Bridgeport Steamship Company (1824) and Bridgeport Whaling Company (1833) had been incorporated and the Housatonic Railroad chartered (1836). The HRRC ran upstate along the Housatonic Valley, connecting with Massachusetts's Berkshire Railroad at the state line. Bridgeport was chartered as Connecticut's fifth city in 1836 in order to enable the town council to secure funding (ultimately $150,000) to provide to the HRRC and ensure that it would terminate in Bridgeport. The Naugatuck Railroad-connecting Bridgeport to Waterbury and Winsted along the Naugatuck-was chartered in 1845 and began operation four years later. The same year, the New York and New Haven Railroad began operation, connecting Bridgeport to New York and the other towns along the north shore of the Long Island Sound.
Now a major junction for western Connecticut, the city rapidly industrialized. Following the Civil War, it held several iron foundries and factories manufacturing firearms, metallic cartridges, horse harnesses, locks, and blinds. Wheeler & Wilson's sewing machines were exported throughout the world. Bridgeport annexed the West End and the village of Black Rock and its busy harbor in 1870. In 1875, P.T. Barnum was elected mayor of the town, which afterwards served as the winter headquarters of Barnum and Bailey's Circus and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.
From 1870 to 1910, Bridgeport became the major industrial center of Connecticut and its population rose from around 25,000 to over 100,000, including thousands of Irish, Slovaks, Hungarians, Germans, English, and Italian immigrants. A Singer factory joined Wheeler & Wilson in producing sewing machines and the Locomobile Company of America was a prominent early automobile manufacturer, producing a prototype of the Stanley Steamer and various luxury cars. The town was the center of America's corset production, responsible for almost 20% of the national total, and became the headquarters of Remington Arms following its 1912 merger with the Union Metallic Cartridge Co. Around the time of the First World War, Bridgeport was also producing steam-fitting and heating apparatuses, brass goods, phonographs, typewriters, milling machines, brassieres, and saddles.
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@kenmurphy6792 4 жыл бұрын

Beautiful Bridgeport Connecticut ... My 'Home-Town' >> I have traveled, and lived in many places and many states, as well as South America and the South of France ... but, I always wind up coming back home .. to the town where I was born. I love it here. ~~~

@LITMOVIESCENES 3 жыл бұрын

you find it beautiful? god bless u lol

@BeingKyleBusch18 3 жыл бұрын

I almost cried.... I grew up in Bridgeport, CT. and now live in Stamford, CT. yeah, it's poverty & crime stricken and there's no jobs but i still miss the biggest city in the state of Connecticut. It's still my home, where i have all the bad memories, good memories as a baby, child, kid, pre-teen, teen, young adult and adult. I occasionally take the train down to Bridgeport from Stamford for a visit just to walk around the part of town i grew up. ^_^ I was hype to see Bassick High school, where i graduated from in 1993 ;)

@Geopholus 3 жыл бұрын

Well , You can form a new opinion... It's not crime or poverty stricken for the last 25 years or so. This is a pretty poor animation. It should show a map of where things are. and show old and new views from a similar perspective. I''d like to see something about Gustave Whitehead the inventor of the crazy flying machine, and something about Bridgeport Milling Machines, Scully tape recorders, and maybe something about the auto's that were manufactured here, and airplanes helicopters, Sikorsky , Hubbell, etc.

@BeingKyleBusch18 3 жыл бұрын

@@Geopholus I didn't mean any harm.

@Geopholus 3 жыл бұрын

@@BeingKyleBusch18 OK.

@LITMOVIESCENES 3 жыл бұрын

home of jj moore 2x all american i believe

@TptDavid 4 жыл бұрын

Love Bridgeport, even though I traveled the world as a professional trumpet player ( West Indies, Europe, etc) there's no place like Bridgeport my home.

@LITMOVIESCENES 3 жыл бұрын

I used to go to Riff Raff records and id cop White Flash tapes from east Main...got some gold fronts from the hi ho too lol

@BeingKyleBusch18 3 жыл бұрын

Heh heh Hi Ho Center.... I used to shop there as a kid. I'd buy Sega Master System video game cartridges in the city sound store. My brother used to work at sears as a teen, on the stop floor. Then they moved to another part of the hi ho center that had more space and sold LP records at that location and i even played video games at that location. The Arcade cabinet was P.O.W = Prisoners of war. it was located at the far end of the store in the corner. Then i remember buying beepers from City sound in the 90's at it's current location, across where rite-aid used to be on the corner. The white owner with his big nose and the black guy with his gold tooth are still working there!

@LITMOVIESCENES 3 жыл бұрын

@@BeingKyleBusch18 oh wow City Sound is still there? Do you remember when Junk Yard Dog came to Hi Ho ? was like a million people there lol

@BeingKyleBusch18 3 жыл бұрын

@@LITMOVIESCENES I remember the buzz around it but i don't remember attending. ^_^ Yes, the original owner ( white guy with an accent ) still owns and runs City Sound, along with the black guy that i can't remember his name or the owners names. I'm surprised they are still in operation with Walmart, Target, amazon taking the lions share of electronics with their low prices and free shipping. Good bless them....

@LITMOVIESCENES 3 жыл бұрын

@@BeingKyleBusch18 for real im surprised its there...poor bpt i used to live over near Vazzys ..my buddies parents taught at harding and wed go see Frenchy Tomlin, Alex wright etc play ..bpt used to have some nice basketball i heard its not like that anymore..

@BeingKyleBusch18 3 жыл бұрын

@@LITMOVIESCENES You dont live in bpt any longer? I live in stamford, CT

@thehumanisalive 7 жыл бұрын

You forgot the entire settlement of freed slaves in the west end known as Little Liberia. This was before industrialization, Bridgeport was not settled by Europeans. The actual “City of Bridgeport” we know today was formed and settled by freed slaves. They were apart of delegation, and created many of the inventions that came out of Bridgeport.

@theselflovefrequency 6 ай бұрын

Thank you for sharing this. And, where did the original native settlers go?

@thehumanisalive 6 ай бұрын

@@theselflovefrequency it’s an interesting story! The native population were actually incentivized to live in the newly settled American colonies in Liberia, under the Monroe administration. There are many stories of American indigenous families emigrating to Monrovia in particular

@user-pp1vi7wj1w 3 жыл бұрын

Looks beautiful

@LITMOVIESCENES 3 жыл бұрын

lol...its a hellhole..city full of projects and run down homes

@kuromi5714 6 жыл бұрын

Wheeler memorial I've been there before! And seaside!

@lucasgabriele9534 8 жыл бұрын

I always wondered were the Weapong people more then just in Woodbridge Connecticut cause of the Woodbridge land trust sign near Alice Newton park

@angelamarie-m6c Жыл бұрын

hello.... any historians on bridgeport when was bridgeport high school built and when was it demolished and where did the records and photo graphs go please and thank you

@LITMOVIESCENES 3 жыл бұрын

whata beautiful place it is now lol