History of Greenways: Cultural

At the beginning of the nineteenth century Connecticut had a population of about 250,000. At this time there were only five incorporated cities in the state; Hartford, Middletown, New Haven, New London, and Norwich (Mary L. Frech ed., 1973 pp.12-14). Today throughout the state there are 169 cities, towns and villages. The landscape of Connecticut patterned the lives of these nineteenth century dwellers. Forestry and farming dominated the Uplands while crops flourished in the Connecticut River valley. Industries such as arms manufacturing and textiles were common in the cities along the many rivers that traverse the state in a predominately north to south direction. Insurance companies were forming and settling into the Hartford area. The first bridge across the sweeping Connecticut River was completed in Enfield in 1808 (Mary L. Frech ed., 1973 p.14). In the year 1822, a charter was granted to the Farmington Canal Company to construct a waterway from New Haven to the Massachusetts border. The canal was in part a response to the difficulty of traveling over the Metacomet Ridge. The completed canal was to carry both freight and passengers inland from the Long Island Sound to Northampton, Massachusetts. This engineering feat was similar, but smaller in scale, to the Erie Canal that crosses the State of New York. The Farmington Canal, west of the Metacomet Ridge, roughly paralleled the Connecticut River that was approximately 20 miles to the east. The Canal rose 220feet throughout its length by using a series of 28 locks. The Canal was completed in 1835, at which time it took approximately 24 hours to travel from New Haven to Northampton, Massachusetts. By 1847, with the rapid progress of the railroads and the somewhat leaky and financially distraught canal in decline, sections of the canal were closed. The railroads began to acquired much of the canal and build their tracks over the now defunct canal (Ruth Sharp Hummel, 1971, pp. 3-11). Today, segments of the canal have been preserved. The canal corridor is used as a significant part of the Farmington Canal Greenway. Segments of this nearly complete north to south greenway, spanning most of the state, are part of the proposed East Coast Greenway network. By 1830 the population of the state had increased to nearly 300,000 people (Mary L. Frech ed., 1973 p.16). Much of the countryside had been cleared for farming and agriculture with less than prosperous results. The exodus of people from not only Connecticut, but also all of New England had begun. People moved west, abandoning their rocky and hilly farmsteads in search of better and plentiful land, now that goods could be easily transported by rail back to the eastern population centers. The landscape of Connecticut began changing back to the dense forested cover that exists today. By the mid 1800's the railroads had begun to proliferate across the state. Of significance was the breaching of the Metacomet Ridge by the railroads in 1839 (Alvin F. Harlow, 1946, p. 175). This allowed freight to be easily transported from New Haven, the state's major port, to Hartford. Additionally, this breakthrough minimized the need for the inland water transportation of goods. This connection also brought the cultures of New Haven and Hartford closer together and continues to be the modern day path of transportation (Michael Bell, 1985, p. 25-26).