Bridgeport is a neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. The area is primarily Irish because of the immigrant workers who settled there during the 1830s and 1840s. 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 Script" to the workers rather than paying them with money. Many of the Irish workers took their land script and settled at the southern end of the canal where Bridgeport exists today.
The father-son mayors of Chicago, Richard J. and Richard M. Daley, are both Bridgeport natives.
According to the 2000 Census, the population of Bridgeport is 33,694.
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