Old Connecticut Path: Difference between revisions

The '''Old Connecticut Path''' was created by Native Americans in antiquity. It originally went about 94 miles (151 kilometers) from '''[[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]]''' to '''[[Springfield, Massachusetts|Springfield]]''' in [[Massachusetts]], and then another 26 miles (42 kilometers) south to '''[[Hartford, Connecticut]]'''. It was the first eastern North American trail that led west from settlements on the Atlantic seacoast into the interior of America (Connecticut River Valley). The [[Connecticut River]] itself was also an important transportation route which attracted early settlers. Starting in the 1650s the Old Connecticut Path route was used as the '''''upper fork of the [[Boston Post Road]]''''' to New York City, also known as the '''''[[King's Highway]]''''' which eventually extended as far south as Charleston, South Carolina.  

The Old Connecticut Path was used by members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as early as 1630. In those first years Indians also carried corn from the Connecticut River Valley over the path to help supply starving colonists in Boston. The route continued to attract settlements in the interior of Massachusetts and Connecticut because it provided access to markets for settler goods and services. Over time the route was shortened and straightened. A more direct road from Boston to Hartford (which skipped Springfield) also came to be called the '''Old Connecticut Path''', and also become the middle fork of the [[Boston Post Road]].  

Massachusetts developed a turnpike (toll) system for wagon roads in the early 1800s including a route from Boston to Springfield to Hartford. Likewise, the direct Boston to Hartford route became a turnpike. Most of these early pathways continue as roads today. Modern freeways usually parallel the older road systems.  

However, the use of early roads and turnpikes for moving settlers waned with the introduction of railroads. Settlers could travel faster, less expensively, and safer on railroads than on wagon roads. So, as railroads entered an area, the wagon-road traffic in that area declined. The first railroads in Massachusetts and Connecticut were built in the late 1830s. A rail line from Providence, Rhode Island reached Hartford, Connecticut about 1847.