In 1991, the city filed for bankruptcy protection but was declared solvent by a federal court.

For the period 1876-1892, Jim O'Rourke ranks behind only Cap Anson in career major league games played (1,644), hits (2,146), at-bats (6,884), doubles (392) and total bases (2,936), and behind only Harry Stovey in runs scored (1,370). According to legend, O'Rourke's signing by the Middletown Mansfields in 1872 was conditioned on the team finding someone to take over his chores on the family farm.

As of 2013, Bridgeport was home to the world's oldest bartender. Resident Angie MacLean, then 98, had tended bar since the age of 17. In 2013, she was still slinging drinks at Panama Joe's Cafe, where she'd worked for more than 20 years. "If you stay at home, what are you gonna do? Watch TV?" she told Connecticut's News 12. "That's not for me."

Located in Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Island Sound, Bridgeport is 60 miles (97 km) from Manhattan and 40 miles (64 km) from The Bronx.