Remington Arms Factory

This former weapons factory was closed in the 1980s following numerous fatal accidents, including workers falling into kettles of molten metal and a 1942 explosion that killed seven workers. The abandoned building was featured on Ghost Adventures.

The Union Metallic Cartridge Company opened its factory in Bridgeport's East End in 1867, and within decades it would become one of the most dangerous workplaces in New England. When Remington Arms merged with the company in 1912, the combined operation expanded to a sprawling 73-acre complex of 38 buildings—constructed in just twelve months for $12 million—employing over 17,000 workers to produce ammunition for two world wars. The New York Times called it "the greatest small arms and ammunition plant in the world." But beneath this industrial triumph lay a foundation of blood.

The factory's death toll began accumulating almost immediately. On April 4, 1905, an explosion destroyed an entire building and killed three workers instantly. The following year, sixteen tons of gunpowder detonated, causing damage as far away as Long Island—miraculously, no one died. Workers faced daily perils: lead dust slowly poisoned those with prolonged exposure, fingers were lost in presses, chemicals and gunpowder caused burns and blindness. Two workers suffered perhaps the most horrific fate imaginable—falling into giant kettles of molten metal, their bodies liquified in seconds.

Labor conditions sparked violent conflict. In July 1914, over one hundred workers went on strike during Remington's wartime expansion. The company's 300-man private security force, working alongside Bridgeport police, responded with lethal force. Eighteen-year-old Frank Monte was shot and killed. Countless others were injured before the strike was brutally suppressed.

The darkest day came on March 28, 1942. At approximately 2 p.m., an explosion rocked the production floor. Investigators later determined that a single nail had fallen into a box of cartridge primers, triggering a chain reaction that killed four women and three men and injured eighty others. The blast sent bullets whizzing through nearby buildings and neighborhoods. One eyewitness, just five years old at the time, later recalled: "My mother took me by my hand to our front door to see what happened and she was crying... It was daytime and outside it became pitch black." Some suspected wartime sabotage, though this was never proven.

After World War II, demand declined. Production moved to Arkansas in 1970, headquarters relocated to Delaware in 1984, and by 1988 the Bridgeport complex stood abandoned. The iconic ten-story shot tower—190 feet tall, once the tallest building in Connecticut, where molten lead dropped 133 feet through sieves to form perfect spheres—now watches over empty lots and crumbling ruins.

Ghost Adventures featured the factory in Season 3, calling it "right at the top" of the eeriest locations they had investigated. Executive producer Daniel Schwartz declared: "It definitely earned its keep in the pantheon of 'Do not put me in that place.'" The team documented extensive paranormal activity: EVPs capturing phrases like "help," "not so hard," and mysterious screams; a partial manifestation of a leg and foot synchronized with footstep sounds; banging, crying, talking, yelling, and what sounded like gunshots. Aaron felt "malevolent energy" flow through him during the lockdown. Multiple cameras experienced complete battery failure.

Bridgeport police who patrol the grounds have witnessed moving shadows, disembodied voices and screams, and unexplained phenomena for years. Visitors report shadowy black figures throughout the buildings—believed to be the 1942 explosion victims who remain unaware the factory closed and oblivious to their own deaths. The sounds of factory work persist decades after the machines fell silent: clanking machinery, yelling voices, phantom gunshots.

Local resident accounts add chilling detail. One witness reported: "The very first time I've seen something strange was at night. We had stopped at the corner and I had been looking up at the top of the tower and suddenly the lights in the tower turned on... you could see something shadowy moving. Then the light went off and on multiple times." The building has had no electricity for decades.

Across the street lies St. Augustine's Cemetery, where Ghost Adventures discovered another layer of tragedy: a Hungarian woman allegedly buried alive, her spirit perhaps adding to the concentrated misery that saturates this corner of Bridgeport. Objects have been thrown from windows at trespassers. Cold spots follow visitors through empty halls. In 2020, one group reported something chasing them through the building—they saw "the shadow of it" running down stairs. The dead, it seems, are still at work.