Bridgeport on Wikipedia

Bridgeport is a neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is one of 77 official community areas of Chicago. Historically and still today, a large section of the neighborhood has served as an enclave of the Irish-American community in Chicago, as large numbers of immigrants from Ireland settled in this working class neighborhood beginning in the 1830s. Many of the same Irish immigrants who helped build the Erie Canal later came to Chicago to work on the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Because of inadequate funding for the project, the State of Illinois began issuing "Land Scrip" to the workers rather than paying them with money. A large number of those Irish-Americans who received the scrip used the scrip to purchase canal-owned land to settle at the northern end of the canal, at its junction with the south branch of the Chicago River which is near the original Bridgeport village, named Hardscrabble, centered on what is now the diagonal section of Throop Street [1], the northwest side of the present day official Bridgeport community area. See also South Side Irish and Finley Peter Dunne. Dunne's Mr Dooley charcacter lived on "Archey Road" (present day Archer Avenue, Chicago ) in Bridgeport.

Bridgeport has also been home to a large number of Lithuanian-Americans, particularly along Lituanica Avenue, which runs between 31st and 35th Streets one block west of Halsted. Today, there are also large numbers of first and second generation Mexican-Americans who, like the Irish immigrants of the mid-late 19th Century, also settled in the Bridgeport area due to its affordability and proximity to their work.

Bridgeport is home to two magnificent churches in the so-called Polish Cathedral style: St. Mary of Perpetual Help and St. Barbara in Chicago. Visible from both the Stevenson Expressway as well as the Dan Ryan, these monumental edifices tower over the neighborhood. The Art Institute of Chicago has recently done restoration work on the historic paintings in the Shrine Altars at St. Mary of Perpetual Help which date back to 1890, and plans are in the works to restore the beautiful stained glass windows and to complete the painting of the interior ceilings and dome.

Although it is often stated that the Chicago White Sox' home field, U.S. Cellular Field, is in Bridgeport, the stadium is actually located one block to the east, in the small Armour Square neighborhood.

The father-son mayors of Chicago, Richard J. and Richard M. Daley, are both Bridgeport natives.

Bridgeport has been the home of five of Chicago's 45 mayors. They are, in order, Edward Kelly, Martin Kennelly, Richard J. Daley, Michael Bilandic, and Richard M. Daley. At one point, Bridgeport held the mayor's office for 46 straight years.

According to the 2000 Census, the population of Bridgeport is 33,694.