Bridgeport sits on Long Island Sound in Connecticut, a harbor city with a working waterfront and a showman's past. Seaside Park gives residents a long shoreline of lawns, beaches, and paths designed in the nineteenth century, and the Barnum Museum honors P.T. Barnum, the showman who served as the city's mayor and left a mark on its civic life. Beardsley Zoo, Connecticut's zoo, draws families to its wooded grounds, and the University of Bridgeport brings students to the city's east side. The harbor, the Sound, and the Pequonnock River frame a city that has always faced the water.