BRIDGE'PORT. A city, port of entry, and one of the county-seats of Fairfield County, Conn.. on Bridgeport Harbor, an arm of Long Island Sound. at the mouth of the Pequonno•k River, 18 miles southwest of New Ilatren, 56 miles northeast of New York (Slap: Connecticut, C 5). It has railroad connections by the New York, New Haven and Hartford and its branches, and steamboats run daily to New York. The city is built mainly on level ground, and occu pies an area of about /5 square miles. The elevated section. Golden Hill, affords tine views of the Sound and shore, and is covered with beautiful residences. Black Rock, which forms part of Bridgeport, is a summer resort, its bar hor being a popular anchorage ground for yachts. The most notable buildings are the States post-otliee and eustom-house, the county court-house, the Barnum Memorial In stitute, the Burroughs Public Library, the. Sterling Widows' Nome, the city hospital, and the Young Men's Christian :Association Building. There arc three fine parks, comprising about 230 acres: Beardsley, Washington, and Seaside; the last. situated on the shore with a sea-wall and a drive two miles long, contains a soldiers' monument. and statues of Elias Howe and P. T. Barnum. Extensive improvements have been recently undertaken in providing a new railroad depot, and in elevating the railroad-tracks, the project to require eventually the expenditure of about $3,000,000, a part of which is borne by the city.
Bridgeport is an important manufacturing city, and has considerable coasting trade, the harbor being safe and accessible for fairly large vessels. The principal articles manufactured are sewing-machines, corsets, coaches, loeomo biles. plush goods, brass, iron, and steel goods,
machinery, cartridges, ordnance, and hardware. Sonic of the factories are of vast size. The Wheeler & Wilson Sewing-Machine Works cover ten acres, and the Union Metallic Cartridge Com pany has one of the largest establishments in its line in the world.
The city government is vested in a mayor, elected every two years, a municipal council, and the usual administrative departments, all ap pointed by the executive, and all, excepting that of public works, where the power is given to a single bead. governed by boards. The, school board, consisting of twelve members, four elected each year for a tenn of three years, is chosen by popular election. The annual expenditures of the city amount to about $1.000.000, the main items of expense being $60.000 for the police de partment. 865,000 for the fire department, $55, 000 for the street lighting, $60,000 for hospitals, asylums. and other charitable institutions. and $170,000 for schools. Population, in 1880, 27, 643; in 1890, 48,856; in 1900, 70,996, including 22.300 persons of foreign birth and 1100 of negro descent.
Bridgeport, first settled in 1665, was known as Pequonnock. 1665-94: Fairfield Village, 1694 1701; and Stratfield, 1701-1800. Until incorpo rated as the Borough of Bridgeport in 1800, it formed part of Fairfield and of Stratford town ships. In 1S36 it became a city, and in lS70 it was enlarged by the addition of a part of Fairfield. and in 1899, of Summerfield and West Stratford. Consult Orcutt, A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport (New Haven. 1S86).