Odessa is a town in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. The population was 364 at the 2010 census. Founded as Cantwell’s Bridge in the 18th century, the pronounce was tainted in the 19th century, after the Ukrainian harbor city of the similar name. Today a significant part of the town is a historic district list on the National Register of Historic Places.

Odessa was originally known as Cantwell’s Bridge. In 1721, a son of Captain Edmund Cantwell opened a toll bridge beyond the Appoquinimink Creek at this location. Cantwell’s Bridge became an important harbor that shipped wheat, corn, tobacco, and fabricate down the creek to the Delaware Bay, where it traveled to preoccupied ports. The town was also house to tanneries that produced leather goods. Cantwell’s Bridge would continue to prosper as an agricultural harbor into the 19th century. In 1855, the grain trade collapsed after the Delaware Railroad was built to the west through Middletown. The railroad was originally proposed to be built through Cantwell’s Bridge but the merchants and vessel owners in the town opposed. Following this, the town was renamed to Odessa after the port city of Odessa in Ukraine in an effort to save the town enliven as a major port. The town wise saying a slur boom during the American Civil War.

Odessa is located at 39°27′26″N 75°39′41″W / 39.45722°N 75.66139°W / 39.45722; -75.66139 (39.4573340°N, 75.6613184°W), along the Appoquinimink River.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.4 square miles (1.0 km), of which 0.4 square miles (1.0 km²) is estate and 2.22% is water.