She was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden in New Jersey on 1 February 1943, launched on 2 July 1944 by Miss Elizabeth K. McGowan and commissioned on 29 April 1945, Captain John Boyd Mallard in command.

Toward the end of the shakedown period she served as flagship for Admiral Jonas Ingram, Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Fleet, during his South American tour of inspection.

On 4 April 1954 Commander Will P. Starnes assumed duties as Executive Officer and on 17 October 1954 Bremerton returned to Long Beach and was granted a thirty-day rest before continuing drills and gunnery exercises off Southern California coast.

Bremerton was awarded a white "E" and a green "E" for excellence for winning the Battle Efficiency competition among cruisers of the Pacific Fleet for the fiscal year 1956 and on 1 September 1956, Command was assumed by Captain Raymond H. Bass.

On 6 November 1956 Bremerton left her home port of Long Beach for the Orient once more, but this time going via Melbourne, Australia and the XVI Olympiad.

Besides Australia, Bremerton visited Redondo Beach, Monterey, Victoria, British Columbia, Seattle, Pearl Harbor, Guam, Kwajalein Atoll, the Japanese ports of Yokosuka, Kobe, Beppu, Okinawa, Keelung, Formosa, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the cities Manila and Olongapo in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Dingalon Bay.

Bremerton was scheduled to undergo a major conversion to become one of the planned Albany-class guided missile cruisers, with the ship allocated the new number CG-14.