The Mainstream of Connecticut:
The Many Roles of the Connecticut River

A Flowing Highway

A virtual arm of the sea, the Connecticut River has enabled people to move, trade and communicate along its navigable length. Through the centuries, in watercraft ranging from wooden dugouts to steam tugs to jet skis, the river has filled a vital role in shaping the lives of those within its watery reach.

< By the mid-19th century the river north of Hartford was navigable only by shallow draft vessels using the canal at Windsor Locks. The dimensions of the canal locks dictated the design of vessels sailing upstream, like the narrow stern wheel steamboat Charles H. Dexter, built at Suffield, near the Massachusetts border.

Schooners Loading Brownstone
Portland, ca. 1895
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< Sailing vessels, especially two- and three-masted schooners, were the nondescript “eighteen wheelers” of the 19th century, carrying bulk commodities as varied as southern pine, mid-Atlantic coal--even manure from the stables of New York City! The primary outbound cargo was by this time was Connecticut Valley brownstone, carried by schooners and barges to growing cities as far-flung as Portland, Maine and New Orleans.

Tugboat A. M. Smith and Barge
Connecticut River, ca. 1907
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< Steam propulsion, first introduced in passenger vessels on the river in the 1810s, also aided sailing vessels. By the 1840s steam tugs began providing towing service to sailing vessels and, later, barges, greatly reducing the time needed to navigate the Connecticut’s twisting course. Here the tug A. M. Smith is in charge of a loaded coal barge during a spring freshet in the first decade of the 20th century.

< Despite the existence of a fine railroad network and, later, the development of the automobile, steamboat service between Hartford and New York City continued well into the 20th century. When the Middletown and her running mate, Hartford, were retired in 1931 it marked the end of more than a century of steam passenger service on the Connecticut River.

Link to other essays in this Journey:

>> The Mainstream of Connecticut: The Many Roles
     of the Connecticut River
>> A Water Barrier
>> A Natural Bounty
>> A Mind of Its Own
>> A Changing Face

>> Guideposts
>> Suggestions for further reading