All About the Swedesburg/Bridgeport Book

by Jack Coll

11/17/2026

All About the Swedesburg/Bridgeport Book

There’s a new book coming out in early March, titled

“Swedesburg/Bridgeport, Histories, Stories and Photographs.”

     Don’t expect the same old history book, telling all of us what we already know, this book is a whole lot different than what one might expect.  It does tell of a few history bits, but here’s a few things that also appear in the 575 page book.

In 1927, aviator Charles Lindbergh became a world-wide celebrity/hero for flying his airplane, “The Spirt of St. Louis” non-stop from New York to Paris, considered  one of the greatest accomplishments of the twentieth century.  Is it really possible that “The Spirt of St. Louis” plane was manufactured in Bridgeport?

In the spring of 1958, there was a prison-break from the Moyamensing Prison once located in South Philadelphia.  It wasn’t long before the manhunt found its way to the Swedesburg/Bridgeport community’s. The massive manhunt brought Pennsylvania State Troopers and other police officer from surrounding communities, they all had guns locked-and-loaded, and they needed them.  One of the three escaped convicts wrestled away a state troopers gun and a shoot-out took place right in front of the Bridgeport’s Police Station.

The book contains a small segment on Animals, that certainly doesn’t sound very exciting.  But seeing the headlines from the Norristown Times Herald Newspaper caught my attention.

“Alligator Hunt in Schuylkill Today; 34-inch Specimen Killed Before Noon,”  The Swedesburg resident just happen to be fishing along the banks of the river in Swedesburg.  The local resident stated that he would have killed it but had to wait a day to see if killing alligators was in season!

Then there was this headline, “Black Snakes on Bridgeport Streets,” WHAT.  The brief animal chapter found its way to the Elmwood Park Zoo, lots of alligators roaming the streets.

Once prohibition was voted into law and took effect in 1920, well now, residents of both Bridgeport and Swedesburg found a whole new side-hustle, but it came at a cost.  In Bridgeport there were newspaper headlines,

“New Constable Starts A Campaign to Take

“Hootch Out of “Hootchville”

Canal Gets “Free Drinks.”

Other headlines included “Arrest Three Violators of the Dry Laws”  (Swedesburg)

Illness Starts Poison Liquor Investigation”  (Swedesburg)

“Hired Sleuths For Raids, Is Lawyers Claim” Arrested was a Swedesburg resident known as,

“The King of Swedesburg’s Bootleggers.”

     Bridgeport residents were experts at hiding their gallon jugs of moonshine during the daily raids.

Illegal gambling in the two communities was commonplace, read-all-about-it!

There were four unsolved murders over the years in the two communities, two in Bridgeport, and two in Swedesburg.

And then there was the deadly strike at the James Lees and Sons Textile Mill, known as the “Most violent Day in Bridgeport’s History.”

I don’t want anyone to think this book is all about notorious Swedesburg/Bridgeport because this book is far from it.  There’s chapters on Restaurants, movie theatre’s from Bridgeport, to Norristown, to Upper Merion.  We talk about a few residents with lots of photographs, (more than 700 photographs throughout the book)

We talk about a race car driver from Swedesburg who raced all the way to the Indianapolis 500 racetrack in an effort to qualify.  Three of Montgomery County’s finest firehouses, we also talk about the canal, bridges, industry, banks and politicians.

The book covers in photographs recent and past events like the feast, carnivals and fairs, Sacred Heart Parish Festival, the AOH St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and Founder’s Day celebrations just to name a few.

The book is an 8 1/2 x 11 hardback with Smythe sew case bind, printed on a quality paper.  The nearly 575 page book contains more than 700 photographs in color and black and white.

We should note that the amount of books are limited to 500 copies. Residents can pre-order the book to make sure their copy is reserved by stopping by at Coll’s Custom Framing at 324 Fayette Street in Conshohocken.

Prices for the book include:

$65.00 in cash, paid at the store in person.

$70.00 with a credit card, residents can just call in their order to

 Coll’s Frame Shop at 610-825-7072    

Any remaining books left after the pre-order books are picked-up will cost $75.00

This is a coffee-table book that will be in the family for years to come, it’s not likely that there will ever be another book like it.

And one more thing, did Bruce Springsteen really live in Bridgeport for a brief time, wait-a-minute, WHAT!  Well, there’s this small apartment complex on Prospect Street, well, you can read all about it in the book, “Swedesburg/Bridgeport.  Histories, Stories and Photographs.”