The Connecticut is spanned by a superb granite bridge at Morgan street, finished in 1907, the largest in mass of any purely stone bridge in the world, and one of the greatest masses of cut stone of any kind. It has nine spans, and is 1,192.5 feet long, 82 feet wide (London Bridge is 42) with a clear roadway of 80 feet including 10-foot sidewalks, and its arches 45 feet above mean low water, with foundations 50 feet below. All above water is dressed and carved in graceful forms. Its cost was about $1,600,000 by itself ; but attendant improvements, a broad boulevard to State street along the river front, raised it to nearly $3,000,000.
The park system contains above 1,300 acres; there are seven chief with lesser ones, lying in every quarter. The oldest is Bushnell Park (from the great preacher Horace Bushnell who secured its creation), in the heart of the city, 485/2 acres; continued south on a sharp rise by the grounds of the State Capitol, where were for merly the buildings of Trinity College. The largest is Keney Park (formerly Ten-mile Woods), purchased, prepared and maintained from the bequest of Henry Keney, in the ex treme north, extending into Windsor, contain ing 663.4 acres. It is managed by private trustees, and is the only one in which automo biles are limited. Next is Goodwin Park in the extreme south, some 200 acres, bought at a generously low figure from Francis Goodwin, Esq. Elizabeth Park in the extreme west, largely in West Hartford, of 100 acres, the bequest (with a maintenance fund) of Charles M. Pond in memory of his wife, is the most beautiful in flowers and trees, and is the nursery for the other parks. Pope Park southwest of the centre, in the chief manufacturing district, is mainly the gift of the late Col. Albert A. Pope of bicycle fame, and has 92 acres, 19 being city additions. Colt Park, 106 acres, was the bequest of Mrs. Samuel Colt, and extends down to the neighborhood of the great fire-arms works. Riverside Park, 80 acres, is a recla mation and beautifying of the formerly squalid river-front north from the stone bridge to the New York and New England Railroad bridge; and was laid out by the late Frederick Law Olmsted, a native of the city. The last two are most useful, being the only practicable resorts for the poor thousands near the river, and are the chief city playgrounds for active games.
Rocky Ridge Park, 28 acres, is the long narrow strip of the old stone quarry (for street paving) next the bluff at and north of Trinity College, overlooking Zion street and Parlcville. There are several smaller squares and spaces: one of a block, Sigoumey Square in the west, is on the site of the old poor-farm pesthouse graveyard, shunned for building purposes, and has trans formed the whole character of its neighboring residence section.
The city has a remarkable number of hand some and architecturally notable buildings. Foremost is the State Capitol, of white marble, towering over Bushnell Park; the handsomest in the country except the one at Albany, and architecturally surpassing that in many ways. It was completed in January 1880, a cost of $2,534,024.46; land and other expenses made the total $3,342,550.73. The general plan was of 13th century Gothic, but modern needs forced very many changes in this. Each side is an indi vidual and separately beautiful design; and the interior is as notable as the exterior. Its ex treme length is 295 feet 8 inches; depth of centre part, 189 feet 4 inches; depth of. wings, 111 feet 8 inches; height from ground line to top of crowning figure, 256 feet 6 inches. It is fire-proof, the only fire-proof capitol in exist ence. It is still more curiously distinguished as being, the only considerable public building in America built within the appropriation. The State Library and Supreme Court, formerly in the Capitol, have been moved since 1910 into a new and splendid building just south, costing $1,375,500; of granite, Italian Renaissance style, fire-proof throughout (the only one of its kind), 294 feet 8 inches frontage on Capitol avenue, and 137 feet 6 inches deep, the main entrance 90 feet back from the curb with a well-kept lawn. The State Arsenal and Armory, finished 1909, is the finest in the United States: of Mohegan granite, 325x275 and 166 feet high, occupying one and three-quarters acres, its drill room holding 12,000. people. It is on virtually the .west part of Bushnell Park across the Park River, near Broad street, East of the Capitol, on Trinity street, is the handsome white granite building of the Orient Fire Insurance Com pany. Trinity College has fine buildings on high ground in the south part, designed to form a quadrangle.