Bridgeport was inhabited by the Paugussett native American tribe during the start of European colonization. The earliest European communal settlement was in the historical Stratfield district, along US Route 1; known in colonial times as the King’s Highway. Close by, Mount Grove Cemetery was laid out on what was a native village that extended past the 1650s. It is also an ancient Paugusett burial ground.
The burgeoning farming community grew and became a center of trade, shipbuilding, and whaling. The town incorporated to subsidize the Housatonic Railroad and rapidly industrialized following the rail line’s connection to the New York and New Haven railroad. The namesake of the town was the need for bridges over the Pequonnock River that provided a navigable port at the mouth of the river. Manufacturing was the mainstay of the local economy until the 1970s.
The first documented European settlement within the present city limits of Bridgeport took place in 1644, centered at Black Rock Harbor and along North Avenue between Park and Briarwood Avenues. The place was called Pequonnock (Quiripi for “Cleared Land”), after a band of the Paugussett, an Algonquian-speaking Native American people who 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 construction of an expressway.) The Golden Hill Indians were granted a reservation here by the Colony of Connecticut in 1639; it lasted until 1802. (One of the tribes acquired land for a small reservation in the late 19th century that was recognized by the state. It is retained in the Town of Trumbull.)
Bridgeport’s early years were marked by residents’ reliance on fishing and farming. This was similar to the economy of the Paugusset, who had cultivated corn, beans, and squash; and fished and gathered shellfish from both the river and sound. A village called Newfield began to develop 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 Articles of Confederation 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.
In 1894, Bridgeport’s Slavic immigrants played a major role in the development of the Orthodox Christian faith in America when they met with Fr Alexis Toth (now Saint Alexis) and founded Holy Ghost Russian Orthodox Church on the city’s Eastside. This parish became the mother church of all Orthodox Churches in New England.
From 1870 to 1910, Bridgeport became one of the major industrial centers 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.
Jewish migration to the city began in the 1881, with an influx of Polish, Russian, and especially Hungarian Jewish immagrants calling Bridgeport home. By 1910 Bridgeport had become the second largest city in Connecticut at 102,052, behind New Haven.
Among the initiatives, the 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.
Further, the Holmes & Edwards Silver Co. was founded in 1882, with its wares sold nationally, and the company became part of the International Silver Company in 1898. (The H&E brand, in fact, continued well into the 1950s and was advertised in national magazines such as LIFE and Ladies’ Home Journal.)
The town was also 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.
In the time between 1910 and 1920, during World War I, the city’s population exploded from 102,054 to 143,555.
Bridgeport in 1910 was the 3rd most Italian city in Connecticut, with nearly 9,000 Italians in the city. At some point the Central End (in the center near Madison Avenue), became the city’s Little Italy.
In the summer of 1915, a series of strikes imposed the eight-hour day on the town’s factories; rather than moving business elsewhere, the success spread the eight-hour day throughout the Northeast. The First World War continued the city’s expansion so that, on the eve of the Great Depression, there were more than 500 factories in Bridgeport, including Columbia Records’ primary pressing plant. The build-up to World War II helped its recovery in the late 1930s.
The Great Migration brought many African-Americans to Bridgeport around the 1930’s (thanks to railroads) along with black immigrants (such as Cape Verdins ), and had the thrid largest percentage of African Americans in New England. Starting in the 1960s, Puerto Ricans began to immigrate to Bridgeport in large numbers, also to work industrial jobs, and by about 1970 had made up 10% of the city’s population.
Before then, as much as 70% of the city’s population were immigrants or the children of immagrants (mostly from Eastern or Sourthern Europe).
Restructuring of heavy industry starting after the mid-20th century caused the loss of thousands of jobs and residents. Like other urban centers in Connecticut, Bridgeport suffered during the deindustrialization of the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. Continued development of new suburban housing attracted middle and upper-class residents, leaving the city with a higher proportion of poor. The city suffered from overall mismanagement, for which several city officials were convicted, contributing to the economic and social decline.
Other neighboring cities such as New Haven and across the country have already begun with redevelopment projects for their aging downtowns, and so the city under Mayor Tedesco goes ahead with the State Street redevelopment project. In 1968, between Lafayette Boulevard and Broad Street was constructed the 450,000 acre, 2 story Lafayette Shopping Plaza, a downtown shopping mall with Sears and Gimbels as anchors. The mall preformed well up until the 1980s, when the Gimbels closed its doors due to poor revenue. The Read’s store that replaced it wasn’t enough to help the mall’s demise, as it too closed three years later. Renamed to Hi-Ho Mall with different management, the mall closed in 1993 and became Housatonic Community Collage.
As major companies began to move into Fairfield County suburbs and cities such as Stamford, Bridgeport began its own process of urban renewal in its downtown district. A block was demoshied to give rise to the 18-floor Park City Plaza, on Middle Street, built by 1972 by the FD Rich Co. with the hope that a major comapny would move in, which never occurred. The plan for three identical towers never materialized, probably due to finances.
In September 1978, Bridgeport teachers went on a 19-day strike due to deadlocked contract negotiations. A court order, as well as a state law that made strikes by public workers illegal in Connecticut, resulted in 274 teachers being arrested and jailed. Bridgeport made numerous efforts at revitalization. In one proposal, Las Vegas developer Steve Wynn was to build a large casino, but that project failed. One that did occur was the construction of a new headquarters for People’s United Bank, the second largest bank in New England. The Connecticut National Bank building on Main Street was demolished and replaced with the 16-story Bridgeport Center, designed by Richard Meier. In 1991, the city filed for bankruptcy protection but was declared solvent by a federal court.
In the early 21st century, Bridgeport has taken steps toward redevelopment of its downtown and other neighborhoods. In 2004, artists’ lofts were developed in the former Read’s Department Store on Broad Street. Several other rental conversions have been completed, including the 117-unit Citytrust bank building on Main Street. The recession halted, at least temporarily, two major mixed-use projects including a $1-billion waterfront development at Steel Point, but other redevelopment projects have proceeded, such as the condominium conversion project in Bijou Square. In 2009, the City Council approved a new master plan for development, designed both to promote redevelopment in selected areas and to protect existing residential neighborhoods. In 2010, the Bridgeport Housing Authority and a local health center announced plans to build a $20 million medical and housing complex at Albion Street, making use of federal stimulus funds and designed to replace some of the housing lost with the demolition of Father Panik Village. The Steel Point (Steelpointe) project of Bridgeport’s East Side (across a bridge from downtown), led to the construction of a Bass Pro Shop in 2013, a Chipotle, Starbucks and T-Mobile, and a lighthouse with a marina and oyster bar (in 2019). The plan for high-end mixed use apartments is in place, although concerns about gentrification have been raised. A hotel is also in the works. Recently, MGM announced plans to build a waterfront casino and shopping center in the city, awaiting approval by the state government. If built, the development would have created 2,000 permanent jobs and about 5,779 temporary jobs.
On March 10, 1860, Abraham Lincoln spoke in the city’s Washington Hall, an auditorium at the old Bridgeport City Hall (now McLevy Hall), at the corner of State and Broad Streets. The largest room in the city was packed, and a crowd formed outside, as well. Lincoln received a standing ovation before taking the 9:07 pm train that night back to Manhattan. A plaque marks the site where Lincoln spoke; later that year, he was elected president.
The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke three times at the Klein Auditorium during the 1960s. Additionally, President George W. Bush spoke before a small group of Connecticut business people and officials at the Playhouse on the Green in 2006. President Barack Obama also spoke at the Harbor Yard arena in 2010 to gain support for the campaign of Democratic Governor Dan Malloy.