No public figure in Bridgeport’s history is better known than Phineas Taylor Barnum. This statue, completed before his death in 1891 was dedicated on the Fourth of July,1893. Sculpted by Thomas Ball, it sits on land that Barnum, once the Mayor of Bridgeport, had donated to the City in order to expand Seaside Park.
Of all of the spots around town that pay homage to the man, I like this one the best. Larger than life, Barnum sits looking across the Long Island Sound in a comfortable chair atop a granite pedestal with a serene bronze gaze. The seagulls come and go with the breezes of the Sound. They occasionally perch on Barnum’s curly head and make themselves more comfortable. It is a deceptively simple memorial to a complicated person.
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