HARTFORD, Conn., State capital, seat of Hartford County, port of entry, head of navi gation on Connecticut River, 60 miles by water from Long Island Sound. Its steam railroad lines, all owned by the New York, New Haven & Hartford system, run in seven directions, making it the greatest inland railroad centre in the Atlantic States save two. By the main line it is 110 miles to New York and 124 to Boston (a midway position which has enhanced its business, social and cultural development), 36 to New Haven, 26 to Springfield, Mass.; by the old New York & New England lines, on the High land Division 110 to Fishkill on the Hudson and 90 to Providence, R. I., and via Willimantic 117 to Boston; the Valley Division skirts the river nearly to its mouth (44) ; the Connecticut Central runs to Springfieldby the east side of the river; the Central New England to Pough keepsie (109) and beyond to Erie and Lehigh connections. Its electric suburban lines, mostly under the same ownership (as is the city sys tem), extend without change to Springfield (a line each side of the river), Rockville (17) ; Middletown (16)i and Bristol, via New Britain (21) ; besides Unionville (13) ; Rainbow (12) ; and South Glastonbury (10) ,• and a line to Norwich (about 38) is under construction. Permanent pop. about 120,000.
Hartford lies on the west bank of the river (which divides it from East Hartford), on roll ing ground. The first real hills are the Talcott Mountain Range, half a dozen miles west; but the elevations of Prospect avenue in the west ern part of the city and Fairfield avenue in the southern afford a superb view across the entire Connecticut Valley, some 20 miles wide. It extends about five and one-half miles north and south to Windsor and Wethersfield lines, by three and one-half west to West Hartford line, about 18 square miles in all; the town and city are conterminous. It is divided about equally by the little Park River, which joins the Connecticut just south of the centre and is crossed by many bridges, whose dams afford large water power, and through whose bed runs the great main sewer into the Connecticut. The chief business street is Main, the original highway to Windsor and Wethersfield, follow ing the river line along the first high ground, the banks of old being widely overflowed in the spring freshets ; next State, east from Main to the steamer landing with the chief tobacco and other wholesale warehouses, opening at Main into a wide flare — formerly the market square for country produce teams, now containing the central trolley station—and paralleled on the south with Central Row, a block long; between them lying the old State House (later till re cently the city hall) with the post-office building in the rear •, then Asylum opposite State, running west past the railroad station, and Pearl parallel opposite Central Row, joining Asylum at its foot by Ford ; and Pratt parallel for a block on the north as far as Trumbull, western parallel to Main, from Park River to North Main, whose section from Pearl to Pratt is of rising importance; Church next north of Pratt, just widened 10 feet, is fast assuming business con sequence.
It is a place of remarkable beauty in busi ness and public structures, parks and (relatively to its size) unmatched extent of handsome residential streets. Of the latter, with some handsome places on Wethersfield avenue (the chief, Samuel Colt's of firearms fame, is now by his widow's legacy a home for old ladies), the most distinguished are Washington street with its magnificent arch of old elms; western Asy lum avenue and correspondent Farmington avenue, with Woodland across the end; and Prospect avenue (north) — the West Hartford boundary, and long built up only on that side to escape Hartford taxes, a reason now obsolete — the most coveted street for new social mag nates. Woodland for many years held that position, and the square from it to Forest be tween the avenues was the pinnacle of social desire; aided by the fact that Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Gen. J. R. Hawley, Charles Dudley Warner and William Gillette had each a house on Forest or the avenue near by. (The costliestplace in the city, the granite upalace of J. P. Morgan's relatives, the Good wins, is at Woodland and Asylum; but their and other landholdings north left few vacant sites). This position has now been transferred to the section west of Park River beyond Wood land to Prospect avenue, with handsome places extending well into West Hartford; though the edges of Keney Park are drawing in a good class, and there are very many other fine streets and individual dwellings.