Bridgeport, with its population of almost 140,000 is the largest city in the state. One of its most famous citizens was P.T. Barnum of traveling circus fame, who had three homes in Bridgeport and housed his circus during their winter breaks. Also famous for the Frisbie Pie Company, it is widely believed that the game of Frisbee originated in the town.
It is famously told that in 1860 President Abraham Lincoln spoke on March 10, in what was then the Fairfield County Courthouse, now McLevy Hall. It was crowded to overflowing, with crowds gathered outside to catch a glimpse or hear a word from the great man’s mouth, although the hall was the largest in Bridgeport at the time.
Connecticut’s climate is temperate, lying on the transition zone between humid subtropical and humid continental, meaning that Bridgeport especially, as it lies on the Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Pequonnock River, has very warm and humid summers and cold, snowy winters.