BRIDGEPORT 



926 



BRIDGES 



Bridgeport is divided into three sections by 

 two arms of its harbor. The city proper and 

 business section are situated west of the harbor. 

 The finest residential districts are Golden Hill, 

 Fail-field Avenue, Brooklawn, Mill Hill and 

 North Main Street. Black Rock, a suburb of 

 the city, is a noted summer resort, its harbor 

 affording ample protection for yachts. 



Parks and Boulevards. Bridgeport is locally 

 called The Park City, from the number of its 

 recreation grounds, the most notable being 

 Beardsley Park, Washington Park and Pem- 

 broke Park, a broad expansion of the old King's 

 Highway, which led from Boston to New York. 

 Seaside Park, on the shore, with a sea wall 

 and drive two miles long, contains a soldiers' 

 and sailors' monument and monuments erected 

 to the memory of Elias Howe and P. T. Bar- 

 num, the industry and enterprise of these two 

 men having been great factors in the develop- 

 ment of the city. 



Manufactures. Owing to the variety of its 

 products, the city is sometimes styled the 

 Industrial Capital. Since 1856 the name of 

 Bridgeport has been associated with sewing 

 machines. The works of the Singer Sewing 

 Machine Company cover about ten acres. The 

 Union Metallic Cartridge Company has one 

 of the largest cartridge factories in the world, 

 its ammunition park covering several hundred 

 acres. The American Tube and Stamping 

 Company, the Holmes and Edwards Silver- 

 Plating Company, the Crane Company and 

 the Warner Corset Company are also located 

 here. Besides these, there are extensive manu- 

 factories of carriages, locomobiles, machinery, 

 hardware, hats, woolen goods, aluminum, 

 bronze and brass. There is considerable coast- 

 ing trade, as the harbor is safe for small ves- 

 sels. 



Public Buildings and Institutions. The most 

 notable buildings are the Federal building, the 

 Barnum Memorial Institute, the Young Men's 

 Christian Association, the Burroughs Home for 

 Women, the Sterling Widows' Home, the Saint 

 Vincent Hospital and a city hospital and the 

 railway station. 



History and Progress. The first settlement, 

 in 1665, was known as Pequonnock. In 1694 

 it was renamed Fairfield Village, in 1701 it 

 became Stratfield and in 1800 was incorporated 

 as the borough of Bridgeport. It was incorpo- 

 rated as a city in 1836; Fairfield was included 

 in 1870, and in 1899 Summerfield and West 

 Stratford were annexed. In 1832 the first 

 Bridgeport steamer, The Citizen, made its first 



ROBERT BRIDGES 

 Poet Laureate of England. 



trip. The Housatonic Railroad was con- 

 structed as far as New Milford in 1840; in 

 1848 the New York, New Haven & Hartford 

 Railroad was opened, and the development of 

 the city began. F.E.M. 



BRIDGES, brij'ez, ROBERT (1844- ), a 

 scholarly English physician and poet whose 

 name and writings were unknown to the ma- 

 jority of readers until 1913, when he was chosen 

 to succeed Alfred Austin as poet laureate of 

 England (see 

 POET LAUREATE) . 

 He distinguished 

 himself as a stu- 

 dent at Eton and 

 at Oxford, and 

 after graduation 

 from the univer- 

 sity traveled for 

 several years in 

 Europe and the 

 Far East. Fol- 

 lowing this he 

 studied at Saint 

 Bartholomew's 

 Hospital in Lon- 

 don and on receiving his degree in medicine 

 began life as a physician, becoming a member 

 of the staffs of two London hospitals. In 1892 

 Dr. Bridges sought the seclusion of his beauti- 

 ful rural estate in Berkshire, where he has 

 since lived as a student of literature and as 

 a writer of poetry that has always charmed 

 the critics. 



The poetry of Dr. Bridges is characterized 

 by noble serenity, high finish of style, and pure 

 lyric beauty. These qualities make him the 

 poet of the critic and the scholar, but he has 

 never stirred the multitude in the manner of 

 his popular contemporary, Rudyard Kipling, 

 who many people thought would be named 

 laureate instead of Bridges. He has used both 

 the familiar English rhythms and the verse 

 forms of the Greek and Latin poets, always 

 with faultless technique, restraint and delicacy. 



The edition of his poetical works issued by 

 the Oxford University Press in 1913 has greatly 

 increased the. number of his readers, and made 

 known many beautiful lyrics that anyone with 

 a taste for poetry can enjoy. The following 

 stanza from A Passer-by is a good example of 

 Dr. Bridges' style: 



Whither, O splendid ship, thy white sails crowd- 

 ing, 



Leaning across the bosom of the urgent west. 

 That fearest nor sea rising, nor sky clouding, 

 Whither away, fair rover, and what thy quest? 



