Post Roads & Iron Horses: Transportation in Connecticut from Colonial Times to the Age of Steam

Preface

| ix Preface S ituated on the northern shore of Long Island Sound, Connecticut has always been the gatewaytoNew England, and the land between the major commercial ports of New York and Boston. This book is the first to look in detail at the evolution of the transportation systems that helped to define the history of the state and the region, and to explore how these technological innovations transformed Connecticut from an agricultural colonial settlement to a nineteenth-century industrial powerhouse. Evidence of Connecticut’s multimodal transportation past can be found on road signs around the state: Canal Street in Plainville, Aircraft Road in Southington, Plank Road in Waterbury, Long Wharf Drive in New Haven, Railroad Avenue in Cheshire, Toll Gate Road in Berlin, Old Stagecoach Road in Weston, Trolley Place in Norwalk, and Rope Ferry Street in Niantic. These names (and dozens more like them) reflect specific moments in a long and complex history that spans four centuries and includes different modes of transport. In that time, Connecticut people, including its many inventors, were active participants in the economic and transportation developments occurring in New England and the nation. Thus, the story of Connecticut transportation is central to our understanding of a broader regional and national history. Transportation history is defined by three major themes: the land, and how it is used; the technology of transport and its evolution; and the law, and how it relates to the financing, construction, and regulation of transportation improvements. While each chapter in this book stands alone as a portrait of a particular time or mode of transport, the importance of the story’s three major themes—land, technology, and law—builds from chapter to chapter across the centuries through turnpike, steamboat, canal, railroad, and street railway developments of the nineteenth century to the fall of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad’s transportation monopoly on the eve of World War I. The result is a story dominated by private enterprise and the technology of the external combustion steam engine yet complete with a wide range of human actions and emotions: creativity and competition , arrogance and greed, errors in judgment and good intentions gone x | preface awry. The result is a unique vision of Connecticut history that emphasizes the importance of transportation to the history of the state as a whole, while providing a new lens through which to evaluate that history. A second book that continues the story of Connecticut transportation in the twentieth century will be forthcoming. Tackling a project of this scope required a lot of help, and I was fortunate to receive more than my fair share from all quarters: from mentors and colleagues , from librarians and research staff, and from the writers of history named in the bibliography whose hard work explored portions of this topic before me. This book could not have been completed without them. In particular, the author extends heartfelt thanks to the following persons and institutions: Robert Asher, the Association for the Study of Connecticut History,PeterBenesandtheDublinSeminar,theCollectionsResearchCenter at Mystic Seaport, Central Connecticut State University, Kit Collier, the Connecticut Department of Transportation, the Connecticut Historical Society Museum, the Connecticut River Museum, the Connecticut State Library, Abbott Cummings, Faith Davison, the Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut, the Law Library at Quinnipiac University, the public libraries of Cheshire, Hamden, Wallingford, and Waterbury, David Martineau, Brenda Milkofsky, the New Haven Museum and Historical Society, Cece Saunders, the Shoreline Trolley Museum, Patty and Bruce Stark, Amy Trout, Matt Warshauser , Walt Woodward, Guocun Yang; and to Suzanna Taminen and Parker Smathers at Wesleyan University Press for their patient support of this project . To those whose names have slipped my mind, a heartfelt apology. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge those for whom no amount of thanks is ever enough: my parents, who provided the moral compass and educational opportunities that continue to give my life meaning; and my wife, Phyllis, whose love makes all things possible. ...