Bridgeport

Bridgeport, city in southwestern Connecticut, in Fairfield County. It is located at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Island Sound. Bridgeport is a manufacturing city, although its industrial base, focused on production of military hardware, declined as government orders decreased in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The city is also an important banking center. Bridgeport has extensive transportation connections with nearby metropolitan regions and is situated on a deepwater port. Ferry service connects the city with Port Jefferson, New York, on Long Island. Air transportation is through Igor I. Sikorsky Memorial Airport.

The city is the seat of the University of Bridgeport (1927) and a community and technical college. Nearby are Bridgeport Engineering Institute (1924) and Sacred Heart University (1963). Cultural institutions include the Discovery Museum, with interactive art and science exhibits; the Housatonic Museum of Art; and a zoo. Notable is the Barnum Museum, honoring showman and onetime Bridgeport mayor P. T. Barnum and entertainer Charles S. Stratton (known as Tom Thumb), who was born in the city.

Bridgeport was the site of a Pequonnock village when European settlement began in 1639. The community first flourished as a whaling port, and with its fine harbor and developing inland areas, soon became a commercial center. The community’s original name was changed to refer to an early drawbridge built near the harbor. Bridgeport incorporated as a town in 1821 and as a city in 1836. The coming of the railroad in the 1840s spurred industrial development, and the city is noted as home to the first sewing machine and gramophone manufacturers. Bridgeport was a major supplier of military goods for Union troops fighting the American Civil War (1861-1865), and the manufacture of military hardware became imbedded in the city’s economy. In 1991 Bridgeport became the first United States city to file for bankruptcy in an effort to solve fiscal problems brought on in part by declining industry.

Bridgeport covers a land area of 41 sq km (16 sq mi), with a mean elevation of 3 m (9 ft). According to the 2000 census, whites are 45 percent of the population, blacks 30.8 percent, Asians 3.3 percent, Native Americans 0.5 percent, and Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders 0.1 percent. The remainder are of mixed heritage or did not report race. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 31.9 percent of the people. Population 142,546 (1980); 141,686 (1990); 139,529 (2000); 139,008 (2005 estimate).