The busy city of Stamford, Connecticut is located in Fairfield County. It presently supports a population of almost 122,000 residents and is considered the 4th biggest city within Connecticut and the 8th largest in all of New England. Stamford is a part of the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk Metro area.
The commuter rail system for metropolitan NYC, known as the Metro-North Railroad, travels through Stamford as part of the New Haven Line. It offers faster trains that travel into the city. Within one hour drive of Stamford City are a total of six major airports including the John F. Kennedy International Airport, that is located inside the state of New York, and the Newark Liberty International Airport, which is located inside New Jersey.
The area around current-day city of Stamford was once known as Rippowam by the native area inhabitants. The very first European settlers also utilized this name until it was later switched to Stamford, a name that is derived from a town within Lincolnshire, England. On the first of July, the year 1640, Chief Ponus and Captain Turner of the New Haven Colony signed the deed to the city of Stamford. Due to the city's proximity to New York, the primary industry of the city of Stamford during the 18th century become merchandising by water.
Although it wasn't as famous as the Salem witch trial, the city of Stamford had its own witch trial in the year 1692. Although the accusations were not as fanatical as those which were thrown around within Salem, they grew to prominence through gossip and hysterics.
In the late 19th century, New York inhabitants started to build summer homes along the beach. Some even transferred there permanently and commuted to the city of Manhattan by train, though this practice did not become commonplace until much later. During 1893 the city of Stamford was incorporated.
Situated within Stamford, there are several company headquarters, including lots of Courant 100, Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies. Among the largest headquarters that are situated in the city of Stamford are World Wrestling Entertainment, Pitney Bowes and Tasty Bite. Moreover, Stamford is home to the Norther American Head office of UBS. The Royal Bank of Scotland runs its North American operations from the city, including its RBS Greenwich Capital subsidiary.
There is high rental costs within Stamford, which forced lots of big businesses outside the city, such as MeadWestvaco, Xerox, GE Capital, International Paper, NBC and Clairol have moved their offices outside of the city.
There are several university campuses located within the city of Stamford, such as the Sacred Heart University, the University of Connecticut and the University of Bridgeport. The campus of the University of Connecticut was opened during the year 1998 in a large, recently renovated building downtown, which was the big Bloomingdales store former home. The two other university campuses are located within the River Bend Executive Center, which is Fairfield County's leading communication and information center. All of these are commuter campuses.