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
Bridgeport City Hall for the county's needs, but the growth of Bridgeport and Norwalk made them more logical choices for county seat and a new courthouse. Bridgeport's offer to pay for the building of a courthouse and jail decided the matter. Bridgeport City Hall was constructed in 1853-54 between State and Bank Streets and cost $75,000. Alexander Jackson Davis designed it in the Greek Revival style to resemble a temple. The building, opened in 1855, had a large ground floor for use as City Hall, two floors for county government and court use and an auditorium, Washington Hall, for public gatherings. In 1886,