Bridgeport Connecticut has an actual wonderful history that no one has capitalized on yet, even in 2024. From the first man to fly as in Gustave Whitehead who flew before the Wright Brothers in 1901 and possibly earlier in 1899, to being a major manufacturing powerhouse. It seems people are embarrassed mentioning that for some reason. We know Bridgeport was held back from keeping pace with the rest of the times, but this was mostly because of greedy land and property owners that kept the defunct factories and slums, while they waited to make a big cash score. Fortunately, at least some of those people have passed away and a new breed of people seem to have a clear focus on what Bridgeport could actually be. A few suggestions if I may: 1.) Get the Airport remodeled & upgraded to keep up with Tweed Airport in New Haven who 're-discovered' there's quite a market in Connecticut. 2.) If the Power generating plant near the Total Mortgage Arena is no longer in use, knock it down and put back a Baseball Stadium or a Soccer Field or in combination with a nice waterfront Hotel. Boston has done it with the waterfront Marriott. 3.) Continue to knock down & clean out the surrounding slum homes and stop feeling obligated to house everybody. Many people's lives are the result of their own decisions and how History itself has played out, it's not Bridgeport's fault how History has turned out for people, but it is the City's obligation to set a direction for itself with achievable goals, not so grand of a plan that the City can't achieve it, but goals it can reach along the way. Help people feel good about the progress along the way. 4.) Do meaningful research on Bridgeport's history of true "First In Flight" with Gustave Whitehead, tie in with all the great research already done by the Whitehead Museum in Germany and other well known researchers, and capitalize on that with a true Museum built in Bridgeport (possibly with Federal funds from the Library of Congress, perhaps the National Endowment for the Arts, etc. And possibly combine with the Sikorsky Helicopter Museum in Stratford (offer them a new home!) and staff it with State Park Rangers & Historians who give as clear a story as they do at Kitty Hawk Memorial in North Carolina. (BTW, when I visited the Kitty Hawk Museum, a Federal Park Ranger told me he knows Gustave Whitehead beat the Wright Brothers.) - but if you build such a Museum, please do it professionally like other major museums, not some neighborhood quality Museum. (please). 5.) Renovate\upgrade Seaside Park & Beardsley Zoo for real. I recently busted Seaside Park & couldn't help notice the still existing graffiti & crumbling concrete. Again, Bridgeport was a jewel in the past and just needs some sincere elbow grease, but again, in measurable steps. Not a $10 Million study that no one can achieve. For good measure and to pick up some prime, I mean prime Real Estate that the City already owns is getting rid of the land fill right next to Seaside Park. One of the people that decided to put it there, Carl Kish, used to work for me and told me the City had no choice but to put it there because no one else would take the trash. Well, that was over 30 years ago, a lot of it has decomposed and is mostly dirt now. Again, with some elbow grease in a research sense I'm sure by now someone will take that dirt and clean up that, what could be, prime water front property.

Bob Dzurenda you've come a long way!!!!

It’s like black hawk down

In 20/20 hindsight, this film was made just before Bridgeport began a rapid slide into decay. Most of the companies listed closed shop and moved elsewhere by 1990, and the Lafayette Mall actually contributed to the abandonment of the "downtown" area and the closing of DM Read's. Now, even that mall is gone and has become Housatonick Community College. I doubt Bridgeport will ever "come back" but I applaud those who keep trying!

@josephchristiansen1803

5 жыл бұрын

lednew2010 it’s unreal how the city was in a large growth in the early 70’s and then all of a sudden went down hill fast makes you wonder what happen

@curtislowe4577

Жыл бұрын

The 70s were tough on all of America but the companies of the industrial heartland and cities that housed those industries lost market share to foreign competition and relocation of factories to other countries. . The reasons were many but some were were not external pressures but pressures from home-grown policies.

My maternal grandfather was a popular employee at Bullards!

I grew up in Bridgeport in the 1950`s till the mid 1960`s. Very good people very nice times. After that the city went into decay. So so sad.

2:38 Sorry, Milford is in New Haven County.

I remember them all

Right before Bridgeport imploded... really the story of industry leaving the US and shifting overseas kicked Bridgeport in the butt, has not recovered since then .......

The good old days before Bridgeport became the source of nearly all crime in Fairfield County. Bank gets held up on the Post Road in a nicer community like Westport? Chances are the perps are either from Bridgeport or associated with those who are. Also you have many really nice towns in Fairfield County and a great place to grow up but fall in with the wrong crowd and you will be spending a lot more time in BPT than you had planned.

This is before a lot of Blacks and Latinos took over I mean moved into Bridgeport, get my drift??

It’s a ghetto now.

Industry gone industry promised. Buildings recognizable. Progress???

this guy saying how good Bridgeport is actually sounds like a comedy routine, I couldn't stop laughing

What year was this 😳

Connecticut history

Technical question: What caused film to deteriorate in this fashion with consistent thin vertical black lines? Also what company manufactured the film?

@abrahamlima5052

Жыл бұрын

Not sure on the film but I’m now intrigued and will look it up… the company was none other than Bridgeport based Peoples Savings Bank, aka Peoples United Bank, aka now a part of M&T Bank

@AppleJack1997

11 ай бұрын

Wear and tear when moving through the dirty transports of projection and editing equipment over the years. A more common cause is "tugging" the end of the film on a reel to tighten the spool.

Interesting video. The narrator said that Bridgeport used to be a slum and the renovations saved it. But if you think of it into the 1980's it got slummier. Right now I'd say 98% of the big companies are closed and gone. Too bad it got as bad as it is today.

@josephchristiansen1803

5 жыл бұрын

Troy Leong this was obviously right before the city went down hill

@DonQuijote1975

3 жыл бұрын

I’m 45 years old. I lived my whole life in Bridgeport. Seen the craziness. City was mostly white residents. 1960s and on, there was a high volume of migration of Puerto Ricans and southern blacks that moved into Bridgeport. PT Barnum, Father Panik Complex. In the 1980s- 1990s was a real shit hole unemployment and arrival of new drug CRACK. city population grew rapidly and not enough jobs. Now New Yorkers , stamford and Norwalk residents are moving to Bridgeport . The closer to New York city the more expensive it is. Every other city is booming but BPT. Downtown BPT is still dead. Bridgeport won’t be what it used to be.

@moises1172

2 жыл бұрын

@@DonQuijote1975 let's tell the story right. There was fighting amongst those whites too. Yes the crack pandemic hit around the time that companies were leaving. Fueling the results of people needing money and supplying the surrounding white towns of the drugs they would buy from bridgeport. Surrounding towns don't support bridgeport so the influx of New Yorkers and New immigrants are creating a new bridgeport. Yes still dangerous but it is a large city in Connecticut. I'm rooting for Bridgeport. It won't be filled with large polluting companies anymore but it still has potential for its location and new residents.

This video makes mention of 5 colleges/universities but it only makes known 4 (University of Bridgeport; Housatonic Community College; Sacred Heart University & Fairfield University) what’s the 5th one!?

@nyconnjersey

3 жыл бұрын

Bridgeport Engineering Institutue

@walkergillette3918

11 ай бұрын

The College of Hard Knocks

@walkergillette3918

11 ай бұрын

Penn State sorry I mean State Penn

@JohnKSedor

Күн бұрын

Yes, BEI (Bridgeport Engineering Institute) is most likely the 5th. That was always held up to me as a very well respected Institution. Not sure what Fairfield University gained by buying it, then making it 'assimilate' into Fairfield University, ultimately having it disappear.

Was Milford, CT originally a part of Fairfield County?

@joeleblanc6617

5 жыл бұрын

No I believe part of the New Haven. Bridgeport was part of Stratford.

@jonasfontalvo1882

4 жыл бұрын

Definitely been part Fairfield county. its the last city that borders north eastern ct county "new haven county"