Connecticut's largest city, a harbor town named for its bridges over the Pequonnock, where P.T. Barnum built a new city across the river, Wheeler and Wilson made sewing machines for the world, and the shore became Seaside Park.

Fairfield County · Record checked October 8, 2026

148,654Population2020 census, the most in Connecticut1
1800First boroughthe first borough in Connecticut2
1821Became a townset off from Stratford; a city in 18361
25 to 30Bridgescounted across its rivers and brooks in 18813
49National Registerplaces, all still standing4

Then and now

The same town 151 years apart. Click either map to look closer.

Bird's-eye view map of Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1875 by O.H. Bailey & Co., restored by KNOWOL

1875

The bird's-eye view

By O.H. Bailey & Co.

Bridgeport drawn as if from the sky in 1875, when about 20,000 people lived here, with Seaside Park, P.T. Barnum's Waldemere mansion and the Standard Publishing Company.5

See the 1875 printMore about this map
Map of Bridgeport, Connecticut in 2026, with downtown, Seaside Park, Black Rock and a guide of 34 numbered landmarks

2026

Bridgeport today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills from downtown out to Schoonhoven Park, the harbor and the shore drawn to their true shape, Black Rock, East Bridgeport and Newfield by name, and a guide of 34 numbered landmarks with 11 National Register sites marked.6

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Bridgeport

The bridges that named a city

Bridgeport was named for its bridges, and an 1881 county history counted at least twenty-five or thirty of them over the Pequonnock, Pembroke Lake, Ash Creek and the brooks. The most famous was the Lottery Bridge, built in 1793 with money raised by selling lottery tickets. It ran from near the foot of Wall Street to Stratford Avenue, with a draw that parted in the middle and was raised by pulleys. It was poorly built. About 1804, during repairs, the whole bridge tipped over into the river and lay there as a ruin for years. A new bridge went up at the foot of Fairfield Avenue in 1807. Travelers paid a toll to cross it until 1868, when the city bought it for about $18,000 and made it free.37

Whale ships and warships

In 1833 the Bridgeport Whaling Company sent out four ships, the Atlantic, Hamilton, Harvest and Stieglitz. When word came that one was outside the harbor, crowds gathered at Stephen Hawley's lumber yard to cheer the crew ashore. The Atlantic's third voyage lasted 629 days and covered 46,640 miles; her crew saw 901 whales and took 34. The business never paid well and ended after a few years. The harbor had seen worse scares. Late in the War of 1812 two British men-of-war anchored off the town with their gun ports open. Church bells rang, the money in the bank was carried away to safety, and nobody slept. In the morning the ships were gone.8910

Barnum's city across the river

In 1851 P.T. Barnum and William H. Noble set out to build a new city on the east bank of the Pequonnock. They laid out tree-lined streets around a park, sold lots on the condition that a house, store or factory went up within a year, and built a covered drawbridge for $16,000. A clock company got land for a big factory there and failed, and Barnum's $400,000 in endorsements for the Jerome Clock Company nearly ruined him. Then Wheeler and Wilson bought the empty building in 1856 to make sewing machines. An 1886 history says the city's great prosperity dates from that day. Its first president had hoped for twenty-five machines a day. The works came to make six hundred.111213

Through the years

25 moments from 1644 to today.

  1. 1644The first documented English settlement inside today's city grows up around Black Rock Harbor and North Avenue.1
  2. 1695About this time the parish between Stratford and Fairfield takes the name Stratfield.1
  3. 1760sA village called Newfield grows up around the corner of State and Water Streets.1
  4. 1793The Lottery Bridge, paid for with lottery tickets, is built across the Pequonnock from the foot of Wall Street.37
  5. 1800Bridgeport becomes the first borough in Connecticut.2
  6. 1804About this year the Lottery Bridge tips over into the river during repairs and lies there as a ruin.7
  7. 1807A new bridge at the foot of Fairfield Avenue replaces the fallen one.3
  8. 1814Two British men-of-war anchor off the town; bells ring, the bank's money is hidden and nobody sleeps.10
  9. 1821Bridgeport becomes a town of its own, separate from Stratford.1
  10. 1833The Bridgeport Whaling Company is formed and sends out four ships.8
  11. 1834Rev. Mr. McDermott says the first Catholic Mass in Bridgeport, in a house on Middle Street.14
  12. 1836Bridgeport is chartered as a city.1
  13. 1837The whale ship Atlantic sails on a voyage of 629 days and 46,640 miles.9
  14. 1842Charles S. Stratton, not two feet tall, debuts at Barnum's Museum as General Tom Thumb.15
  15. 1848Barnum opens Iranistan with a housewarming for a thousand guests.16
  16. 1851Barnum and William H. Noble begin laying out East Bridgeport across the river.11
  17. 1856Wheeler and Wilson moves its sewing machine works into the empty clock factory in East Bridgeport.12
  18. 1862The Seventeenth Connecticut Volunteers camp on the shore that becomes Seaside Park.17
  19. 1864Barnum, Noble and Nathaniel Wheeler give the city land on the Sound for Seaside Park.1
  20. 1866The Wheeler and Wilson Band begins giving concerts in Seaside Park.18
  21. 1868The city buys the toll bridge for about $18,000 and makes it free.3
  22. 1871P.T. Barnum serves as mayor.6
  23. 1878James Beardsley gives more than 100 acres along the Pequonnock for Beardsley Park.1
  24. 1893The Barnum Institute building, today's Barnum Museum, is completed on Main Street.19
  25. 1915Remington Arms builds its huge plant on Boston Avenue.1

Places to see

The numbers match the landmark guide printed on the 2026 map.

  • 2Seaside ParkThe South End shore. Olmsted's park on Long Island Sound.
  • 3Beardsley ParkNorth of downtown. James Beardsley's gift of 1878.
  • 4The Barnum MuseumMain Street, downtown. Barnum's museum of 1893, a National Historic Landmark.Visit their website
  • 14Palace and Majestic TheatersMain Street, downtown. Twin theaters of 1922.
  • 16Barnum/Palliser Historic DistrictSouth of downtown. Barnum's 1880s workers' houses.
  • 27Tongue Point LighthouseBridgeport Harbor. The little Bug Light of 1891.
  • 29Beardsley Zoological GardensBeardsley Park. The state's zoo, beside the park.Visit their website
  • 30Black Rock Historic DistrictThe southwest. Where the first settlers came, 1644.
  • 31Fairfield County CourthouseGolden Hill Street. Romanesque courthouse of 1888.
  • 33Remington City Historic DistrictThe northeast. Housing for World War I workers.

On the National Register

20 of the 49 places in Bridgeport on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters. See the full list of National Register places in Bridgeport.4

  • Black Rock Historic District

    Listed 1979 · Black Rock Harbor, Grovers Avenue, Beacon and Prescott Streets

    Black Rock was settled in 1644 and was the third largest port in Connecticut at the time of the Revolution. It was part of Fairfield until Bridgeport annexed it in 1870.20

  • Sterling Block-Bishop Arcade

    Built 1841 · Listed 1978 · 993-1005 Main Street

    One of the city's oldest commercial buildings, begun as part of the Sterling Hotel. William D. Bishop added its glass-roofed arcade in 1889, and it's called the first indoor shopping mall in the state.21

  • Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses

    Built 1848 · Listed 1999 · 352-4 and 358-60 Main Street

    Two houses built in 1848 for the sisters Mary and Eliza Freeman in Little Liberia, a neighborhood of free Black families, and the last of its houses on their original foundations. They are the oldest remaining houses in Connecticut built by free Black residents, and stops on the Connecticut Freedom Trail.22

  • East Bridgeport Historic District

    Listed 1979 · Railroad tracks, Beach, Arctic and Knowlton Streets

    The planned neighborhood P.T. Barnum and William H. Noble laid out around Washington Park, whose growth brought industry to the east bank of the Pequonnock.23

  • Bridgeport City Hall (McLevy Hall)

    Built 1854 · Listed 1977 · 202 State Street

    Built to house both the city hall and the Fairfield County courthouse after Bridgeport offered to pay for them. It served as city hall into the 1930s and was renamed for Mayor Jasper McLevy in 1966.24

  • Seaside Park

    Listed 1982 · Long Island Sound

    A crescent of shore park about two and a half miles long, begun on land Barnum and others gave the city by 1864, with plans from Frederick Law Olmsted's firm.25

  • St. John's Episcopal Church

    Built 1873 · Listed 1984 · 768 Fairfield Avenue

    A Gothic Revival church of Greenwich granite designed by James Renwick Jr. for a congregation founded in the mid-1700s.26

  • Beardsley Park

    Listed 1999 · 1875 Noble Avenue

    More than 100 acres along the Pequonnock that farmer James W. Beardsley gave the city in 1878 to be kept forever as a public park. Frederick Law Olmsted delivered its plan in 1884.27

  • Barnum/Palliser Historic District

    Listed 1982 · Myrtle and Park Avenues, Atlantic and Austin Streets

    Houses P.T. Barnum developed for workers in the 1880s, most designed by the pattern-book architects Palliser, Palliser & Co.28

  • Bridgeport Downtown North Historic District

    Listed 1987 · Congress, Water, Fairfield Avenue, Elm, Golden Hill and Chapel Streets

    The northeastern quarter of downtown, with commercial and civic buildings from every stage of the city's growth after the Civil War.29

  • Seaside Institute

    Built 1887 · Listed 1982 · 299 Lafayette Street

    Built by the Warner Brothers Corset Company as a dining hall, library and meeting place for its women workers, who made up most of its 1,200 employees.30

  • Fairfield County Courthouse

    Built 1888 · Listed 1982 · 172 Golden Hill Street

    A Richardsonian Romanesque courthouse by Warren R. Briggs. Bridgeport won it over Norwalk with a $150,000 offer backed by P.T. Barnum, and it still hears cases.31

  • Tongue Point Lighthouse

    Built 1891 · Listed 1990 · Western side of Bridgeport Harbor at Tongue Point

    The little cast iron Bug Light, built at the end of the breakwater and moved here in 1919. Boaters protested when the Coast Guard planned to remove it in 1967.32

  • Barnum Museum

    National Historic Landmark

    Built 1893 · Listed 1972 · 820 Main Street

    Built with Barnum's money and land for the Bridgeport Scientific Society and the Fairfield County Historical Society. It holds a large collection on Barnum and the city and was made a National Historic Landmark.19

    Visit their website

  • Stratfield Historic District

    Listed 1980 · North, Clinton and Brooklawn Avenues

    More than 100 acres of fine houses built mostly from 1880 to 1920, once the most fashionable part of the city and one of the largest such neighborhoods in the state.33

  • Nathaniel Wheeler Memorial Fountain

    Built 1912 to 1913 · Listed 1985 · Park and Fairfield Avenues

    A bronze mermaid holding a lamp and a baby above a granite pool, with three watering troughs, given by the children of sewing machine maker Nathaniel Wheeler.34

  • Seaside Village Historic District

    Listed 1990 · Iranistan Avenue between South Street and Burnham Street

    Brick rowhouses the federal government built in World War I for munitions workers, designed by R. Clipston Sturgis with Arthur Shurtleff.35

  • Remington City Historic District

    Listed 1990 · Bond, Dover and Remington Streets and Palisade Avenue

    Brick duplexes and rowhouses Remington Arms built to draw workers to its huge munitions plant nearby.36

  • Palace and Majestic Theaters

    Built 1922 · Listed 1979 · 1315-1357 Main Street

    Sylvester Z. Poli's twin theaters and hotel, designed by Thomas W. Lamb. The Majestic opened in 1922 with Eddie Cantor, and both theaters closed in the 1970s.37

  • Hotel Beach

    Built 1927 · Listed 1978 · 140 Fairfield Avenue

    A thirteen-story Art Deco tower, also called the Hotel Barnum, one of the city's outstanding Art Deco buildings, built when Bridgeport was at its peak.38

In their words

“Bridgeport is not inappropriately named, as the whole number of bridges, great and small, crossing the Pequonnock River, Pembroke Lake, and the various streams known as Ash Creek, Horse Tavern Brook, Island Brook, and Rooster River, cannot be less than twenty-five or thirty in number.”

History of Fairfield County, Connecticut, 18813

“From this time dates the great prosperity and growth of Bridgeport. It not only brought new business to the toilers of the city, but also a lot of new inhabitants, men of vigorous mind and liberal enterprise, and a class of educated, skilled mechanics, unequaled anywhere in the country.”

A history of the old town of Stratford and the city of Bridgeport, 1886, on the coming of Wheeler and Wilson12

“laid out the entire property in regular streets and lined them with trees, reserving a beautiful grove of six or eight acres, which we inclosed and converted into a public park.”

P. T. Barnum on founding East Bridgeport, quoted in History of Fairfield County, 188111

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Bridgeport, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. A history of the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut (1887), on the first borough, Internet Archive
  3. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on Bridgeport's bridges, Internet Archive
  4. National Register of Historic Places listings in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  5. Bird's-eye view of Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1875, restored by KNOWOL
  6. Map of Bridgeport, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  7. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on the Lottery Bridge, Internet Archive
  8. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on the Bridgeport Whaling Company, Internet Archive
  9. A history of the old town of Stratford and the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut (1886), on the ship Atlantic, Internet Archive
  10. The historical, statistical and industrial review of the state of Connecticut (1884), on the War of 1812, Internet Archive
  11. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), quoting P. T. Barnum on East Bridgeport, Internet Archive
  12. A history of the old town of Stratford and the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut (1886), on East Bridgeport and Wheeler and Wilson, Internet Archive
  13. Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography (1917), on the Wheeler and Wilson company, Internet Archive
  14. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut (1881), on St. Augustine's Church, Internet Archive
  15. A history of the old town of Stratford and the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut (1886), on General Tom Thumb, Internet Archive
  16. Genealogical and family history of the state of Connecticut (1911), on Barnum and Iranistan, Internet Archive
  17. The Connecticut quarterly (1895), on the parks of Bridgeport, Internet Archive
  18. The Connecticut magazine (1905), on Seaside Park, Internet Archive
  19. Barnum Museum, Wikipedia
  20. Black Rock Historic District, Wikipedia
  21. Sterling Block-Bishop Arcade, Wikipedia
  22. Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses, Wikipedia
  23. East Bridgeport Historic District, Wikipedia
  24. McLevy Hall (Bridgeport City Hall), Wikipedia
  25. Seaside Park (Connecticut), Wikipedia
  26. St. John's Episcopal Church (Bridgeport, Connecticut), Wikipedia
  27. Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo (Beardsley Park), Wikipedia
  28. Barnum-Palliser Historic District, Wikipedia
  29. Bridgeport Downtown North Historic District, Wikipedia
  30. Seaside Institute, Wikipedia
  31. Fairfield County Courthouse (Bridgeport, Connecticut), Wikipedia
  32. Tongue Point Light, Wikipedia
  33. Stratfield Historic District, Wikipedia
  34. Nathaniel Wheeler Memorial Fountain, Wikipedia
  35. Seaside Village Historic District, Wikipedia
  36. Remington City Historic District, Wikipedia
  37. Palace and Majestic Theaters, Wikipedia
  38. Hotel Beach, Wikipedia