The contract to build her was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut on 24 January 1972 and her keel was laid down on 8 May 1976.

On 11 March 1999, Bremerton used one torpedo to sink the derelict forebody of the merchant ship New Carissa off the Oregon coast.

[2] After a successful Western Pacific deployment, in September 2003 Bremerton changed its homeport to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

On that day, Richard O'Kane's cribbage board was transferred from Los Angeles to Bremerton, a tradition that dates back to World War II.

[5] In January 2011, Bremerton was adopted by its namesake city, along with a partnership of community members and organizations led by the Bremerton-Olympic Peninsula Council of the US Navy League.