Columbia Mark XLVIII

Columbia Mark XLVIII made by Electric Vehicle Company, Hartford – Connecticut Historical Society and Connecticut History Illustrated

Many of Connecticut’s achievements in transportation have also contributed to far-reaching societal changes. For example, Columbia bicycles produced in Hartford not only brought greater personal mobility to the masses they also contributed to women’s suffrage and the Good Roads Movement of the late 19th century. The state’s transportation history also includes early Native American trails that traced routes still in use today, New England’s most ambitious canal project, and the highways that helped promote suburban development. A past mode of moving people and goods that remains in use today is the Glastonbury-Rocky Hill ferry; opened in 1655, it is the oldest continuously running service of its kind in the US.

More on Transportation from the CT Digital Archive

Browse more interactive content on the CT Digital Archive website.

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Shipbuilding at Gildersleeve Ship Construction Co., Portland

The Gildersleeve Shipbuilding Legacy in Portland

Perhaps the most recognizable name in the history of Portland, Connecticut shipbuilding is Sylvester Gildersleeve. …[more]

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Websites

The Merritt Parkway. “Connecticut’s Historic Bridges - The Merritt Parkway,” 2012. Link.
Department of Transportation. “Early Travel in Connecticut,” 2003. Link.

Video

Hindenburg Over Hartford, Connecticut 1936, 2010. Link.

Places

“Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum,” 2016. Link.
“Danbury Railway Museum,” 2012. Link.
“Essex Steam Train,” 2012. Link.
“Mystic Seaport,” 2017. Link.
“National Helicopter Museum,” 2011. Link.
Railroad Museum of New England. “Naugatuck Railroad,” 2016. Link.
“New England Air Museum,” 2016. Link.
“The Shore Line Trolley Museum,” 2012. Link.

Documents

“Broadside - Stage Coach Schedule: States Schedule for Stagecoach Line Between Ridgebury, Ridgefield, Wilton, and Norwalk, Conn., with Connections for Steamboat to New York City.” D. Hunt, 1845. Connecticut History Illustrated, Connecticut Historical Society. Link.
Connecticut Aeronautical Historical Association. “Connecticut Pioneers in Aviation.” Connecticut State Library, 1963. Link.
“Connecticut Ship Database, 1789-1939.” Mystic Seaport, 2007. Link.
New Haven Museum. “Farmington Canal: MSS 57A - Alphabetical Index of Manuscript Collections,” 2016. Link.
Stodart & Currier. “Map of Farmington & Avon Indicating the Farmington Canal and Feeders.” n.d. Connecticut History Illustrated, Connecticut Historical Society. Link.
Tilden, S.D. “Map of the Railroads of Connecticut to Accompany the Report of the Railroad Commissioners, 1893.” Hartford, CT, 1893. University of Connecticut Libraries - Map and Geographic Information Center - MAGIC. Link.
Railroad History Archive, Archives & Special Collections, Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut. “Railroad History Archive,” 2012. Link.
Archives & Special Collections of the University of Connecticut Libraries. “Railroads - Western Connecticut - Images,” 2011. Link.
Rand McNally and Company. “Rand, Mcnally & Co.’s Map of New York City and Vicinity Showing Steam Railroads and Electric Lines.” Chicago: Rand McNally and Company, 1908. University of Connecticut Libraries - Map and Geographic Information Center - MAGIC. Link.
New Haven Museum. “Turnpike Companies: MSS 36 - Alphabetical Index of Manuscript Collections,” 2013. Link.

Books

Palshaw, Thomas C. Bradley Field: The First 25 Years. Windsor Locks, CT: The New England Air Museum, 2011.
Turner, Gregg M., Melancthon W. Jacobus, and Oliver Ormerod Jensen. Connecticut Railroads: An Illustrated History. Hartford,  CT: Connecticut Historical Society, 1986.
Connecticut State Highway Department, and Tercentenary Commission of Connecticut. Forty Years of Highway Development in Connecticut, 1895-1935. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1935.
Harper, Ross K., Bruce Clouette, and Mary G. Harper. Highways to History: The Archaeology of Connecticut’s 18th-Century Lifeways. Newington, CT: The Connecticut Department of Transportation, 2013.
Mystic Seaport Museum, and William Peterson. “Mystic Built”: Ships and Shipyards of the Mystic River, Connecticut, 1784-1919. Mystic,  CT: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1989.
Albion, Robert Greenhalgh, William A. Baker, and Benjamin Woods Labaree. New England and the Sea. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1972.
DeLuca, Richard. Post Roads & Iron Horses: Transportation in Connecticut from Colonial Times to the Age of Steam. Middletown,  CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2011.
Larned, Larry. Route 15 the Road to Hartford. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2002.
Pember, Harry, Igor Ivan Sikorsky, Sikorsky Aircraft, and United Aircraft Corporation. Seventy-Five Years of Aviation Firsts. Stratford, CT: Sikorsky Historical Archives, 1998.
Holbrook, Stewart Hall. The Old Post Road: The Story of the Boston Post Road. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962.
Karr, Ronald. The Rail Lines of Southern New England: A Handbook of Railroad History. Pepperell,  MA: Branch Line Press, 1995.
Wood, Frederic. The Turnpikes of New England and Evolution of the Same Through England, Virginia, and Maryland. Boston, MA: Marshall Jones Company, 1919. Link.