Connecticut River

The Connecticut River is New England’s longest, flowing through the states of New-Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Altogether, the river is 670 km (410 miles) long, and runs from the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada to Long Island Sound at Old Lyme, Connecticut. The river plays host to several threatened and endangered species, such as the puritan tiger beetle and the dwarf wedge mussel. Furthermore, the Connecticut River was an early and significant source for fossil excavation. Curiously, the river is one of the few large and developed rivers in the U.S. not to have a port at its mouth. The reason for this is that shifting shoals at Long Island Sound make safe navigation by large ships impossible. The oldest city that settled next to the Connecticut River was Hartford, CD in 1635. Moreover, the river is home to the nation’s oldest continuously operating ferry, the Rocky Hill-Glastonbury Ferry. The ferry started operating in 1655. In 1998, President Clinton designated the river as one of just 14 American Heritage Rivers.[1]

View to the north from the French King Bridge in western Massachusetts.

Connecticut River