The two real estate operators built a large toll bridge to connect their new city of East Bridgeport with Bridgeport proper. Soon a coach builder set up his factory on the Barnum and Noble property, and other buildings began to rise in the town, for Barnum advanced money liberally, permitting purchasers who would build in East Bridgeport to repay their debts in instalments; he had become so infatuated with East Bridgeport that any one with a scheme for its improvement or a new enterprise to be located there was listened to with undivided attention that soon developed into enthusiasm. A small clock company which manufactured its product in Litchfield, Connecticut, had absorbed some of Barnum’s money; he became a director in the company, which soon afterwards failed, and Barnum took over the clocks on hand, removing the materials to East Bridgeport. At about the same time Theodore Terry’s clock factory at Ansonia had been destroyed by fire, and Terry approached Barnum with the proposal to build a new clock factory in East Bridgeport. A joint stock company was formed, known as the Terry & Barnum Manufacturing Company. Barnum’s Litchfield clocks and Terry’s stock which had not been destroyed by the fire were combined, and in 1852 Barnum built a factory in East Bridgeport for the manufacture of clocks. Several years later Barnum was approached by the Jerome Clock Company, the largest clock manufactory in America, for financial aid. The company’s factories were situated in New Haven, Connecticut, and Barnum supplied extra capital on condition that the company would remove as soon as convenient to East Bridgeport. The Jerome Company employed more than seven hundred workmen, and Barnum saw in this number a valuable addition to the population of East Bridgeport. He wrote in his autobiography that Chauncey Jerome, the reputable president of the company, visited him in Bridgeport on this business, but Chauncey Jerome later wrote a book in which he said that he had never seen Barnum until after the termination of their business relations.[14]