The complete article was published in Travel Awaitsin August 2020
This post documents our road trip from New York to Massachusetts through Connecticut, the third smallest state in the US but also the 29th most populous state, making it the fourth-most densely populated. In just two nights of camping, we discovered seven landmarks in its three largest cities: Bridgeport, New Haven, and Hartford. Two industries, financial services and maritime, combine to give the state the highest per capita income, human development index, and median household income in the entire U.S. Quite an achievement for such a small piece of land. "Small is beautiful."
Bridgeport
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Only an hour and 45 minutes from New York City, Bridgeport has a population of almost 150,000, the largest city in Connecticut. Also a coastal city like New Haven, Bridgeport is at the center of the state’s significant maritime industry. But it was the Barnum Museum, the main authority on P.T. Barnum (1810-1891), the showman, businessman, and founder of the Barnum and Bailey Circus. It has become a national treasure that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
New Haven
New Haven is only about 30 minutes from Bridgeport and 40 minutes from Hartford, the state capital to the northeast. It’s the second-largest city at almost 130,000 in population.
The Knights of Columbus Museum was another unique museum on our itinerary. In 1882, when Fr. Michael McGiveny (who is currently up for sainthood at the Vatican) saw the need for an organization that could partner with parishes to help poor immigrant families, he founded the Knights of Columbus. It is now the largest fraternal service organization in the Catholic Church with about two million members.
New Haven is also home to the beautiful campus of Yale University, an Ivy League school. The Yale University Art Gallery is, in fact, the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. Housed in several buildings on the campus, it emphasizes Italian paintings, African sculptures, and modern art.
Hartford
The capital of Connecticut and home to over 120,000 residents, Hartford is known as the Insurance Capital of the World. It is where the financial services industry grew to be as important as the state’s maritime industry.
Its most distinctive landmark is the 34-story Travelers Tower constructed in 1919 as the seventh-tallest building in the world. The headquarters of Travelers Insurance, one of the biggest insurance companies in the world, its 27th-floor observation deck is where you can get the best aerial view of the city.
Hartford is also a center of excellence in literary works not just in the state but of the country. Both the lovely Mark Twain House and Museum and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center and House sit almost side by side. The landmark novel of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which graphically details the harshest of conditions endured by slaves in America, laying the groundwork for the Civil War. Mark Twain’s (1835-1910) work, on the other hand, was published 20 years after the Civil War. They may have been almost a generation apart, but they were both addressing the same issue that we are still dealing with today.
Lastly, we visited the third unique museum in Hatford. The CRRA — Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority — established the Trash Museum that demonstrated not only what trash accumulation does to the environment but also advocated single-stream recycling — leading the way in this industry. Unfortunately, it closed permanently in June of 2016.
Connecticut was the fifth of the original 13 states and even led all the others in the formulation of a constitution. Adopted in 1639, its Fundamental Orders heavily influenced the framing of the US Constitution and the development of the federal government. If you are in New York, Rhode Island, or Massachusetts, consider passing through Connecticut to see for yourself how such a small state is so beautifully successful.
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