Bridgeport, Connecticut 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
Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport the home of the biggest community—about 100 people. On July 24, 1842, St. James the Apostle Church was dedicated by Bishop Fenwick at the corner of Washington Avenue and Arch Street in Bridgeport, which by then had a population of about 250 Catholics. The rector of the church was given responsibility for small Catholic communities of Derby and Norwalk. Catholics in Stamford, Greenwich and some other towns were ministered to by the Bridgeport rector and by Jesuit priests based at Fordham College in New York City. The Diocese of Hartford was split off from the Diocese of Boston (which had