Paved Roads and Public Money
Bridge Detail on the Merritt Parkway
Courtesy of the Connecticut Highway Department
A Driftless Connecticut Series Book
This book is a 2020 selection in the DRIFTLESS CONNECTICUT SERIES, for an outstanding book in any field on a Connecticut topic or written by a Connecticut author.
Merritt Parkway Route Map
Courtesy of the Connecticut Highway Department
ConnecticutTransportation inthe Age of InternalCombustion
Richard DeLuca
Paved Roads andPublic Money
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Middletown, Connecticut
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown CT 06459
www.wesleyan.edu / wespress
© 2020 Richard DeLuca
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Typeset by Nord Compo
The Driftless Connecticut Series is funded by the
Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund
at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
NAMES: DeLuca, Richard, author.
TITLE: Paved roads and public money: Connecticut transportation in the age of internal combustion / Richard DeLuca.
DESCRIPTION: Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, [2020] | Series: Driftless Connecticut series | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “A complete history of modern Connecticut transportation infrastructure, from bicycles paths to highways”—Provided by publisher.
IDENTIFIERS: LCCN 2020015368 (print) | LCCN 2020015369 (ebook) | ISBN 9780819573032 (cloth) | ISBN 9780819573049 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Transportation—Connecticut—History. | Roads—Connecticut—History. | Roads—Connecticut—Finance—History. | Transportation and state—Connecticut—History.
CLASSIFICATION: LCC HE213.C6D448 2020 (print) | LCC HE213.C6 (ebook) | DDC 388.109746—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020015368
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020015369
5 4 3 2 1
Front cover illustration: “Age of Internal Combustion.” Courtesy of the National Archives.
For David Martineau
Contents
Introduction: The Bicycle Leads the Way / 1
Chapter One: The Early Auto Age / 20
Chapter Two: Connecticut Takes to the Sky / 58
Chapter Three: Parkways, Expressways, and Interstates, Part 1 / 87
Chapter Four: Parkways, Expressways, and Interstates, Part 2 / 118
Chapter Five: A Public Monopoly / 150
Conclusion: A Historical Perspective: 1614–2015 / 184
Appendix A: Population by Geomorphic Region 1900–2000 / 205
Appendix B: Controlled-Access Expressways / 212
Appendix C: Notable Highway Bridges / 216
Preface
As a companion volume to my earlier book Post Roads & Iron Horses: Transportation in Connecticut from Colonial Times to the Age of Steam, published by Wesleyan University Press in 2011, this work completes an attempt to provide a four-hundred-year overview of how transportation technology and policy have shaped, and continue to shape, the history of our state. The story in the first volume was fairly straightforward, with new technologies replacing older ones as the nineteenth century progressed, culminating in a system of rail, trolley, and steamboat services controlled by the privately owned transportation monopoly that was the New Haven Railroad. This volume presents a more complex story line, where the new technologies of the automobile and the airplane replaced the railroad as the predominant modes of transportation, while the federal government, in partnership with the state of Connecticut, became major actors in the drama of twentieth-century travel, providing public financing for the infrastructure required by the new modes of transport—to the detriment of the existing rail system. In addition, the federal government used its funding influence to promote a policy of scientific management and long-range planning that came to define how states addressed the problems of population growth and land use. However, despite the complexities of this second volume, the story of Connecticut transportation in the twentieth century contains the same three themes that are woven through the earlier book: the evolution of transportation technology and its impact on the physical landscape, the difficulties of regulating and financing transportation systems, and the various attempts by agents of the state to alleviate those difficulties and mitigate that impact. These three story lines provide a unique overview of the first four hundred years of Connecticut history, and a primer on the continued importance of transportation to our state’s future.
It bears repeating that a project of this magnitude is never accomplished alone, and I was fortunate to receive more than my fair share of help from many different quarters: from mentors and colleagues, from librarians and research staff, and especially from writers of Connecticut history who came before me, and whose work influenced my own. Their works are cited in the bibliography, and this book could not have been written without them. In particular, I extend heartfelt thanks to the following persons and institutions: