A Brief Trip Through Connecticut History
Last week, rather than drive home from work the whole way on the boring highway, my mom and I decided to take the Rocky Hill-Glastonbury Ferry across the Connecticut River. Apparently, this is the oldest continuously running ferry IN THE NATION, and used to be a raft pushed across the river by poles. (Not Poles, although some of the pole pushers may have been Poles, too). According to the ConnDOT website, it was also once powered by a horse on a treadmill.
When the weather is nice, sometimes we'll take a drive down to the park there at the ferry landing. There's also a seasonal snack shack there that provided me with greasy clam strips more than once this summer. Anyway, since the ferry season only runs until October 31st, we figured we'd better satisfy our curiosity and ride the ferry, lest we have to wait until May.
There's a nice, new sign at the ferry park, but I didn't take a picture of it.
We drove up to the landing and waited.
We had just missed it, actually. It had pulled away from the landing as we drove up.
I wasn't paying attention, so I don't know how long it took for the ferry to come back. Not long, though, because the river is not particularly wide there.
We drove onto the ferry.
This was, to my best recollection, the first time I ferried an automobile on a ferry. It sort of made me queasy, what with the feeling like I'm floating in the car feeling.
The ferry guy collected our fare. $3.00 for the vehicle, including passengers. There is a commuter rate of $2.00 with commuter coupons, and it is a buck as a walk-on pedestrian or with a bike. Wikipedia tells me this is handy, because otherwise it would be a 13 mile detour. It also says that that the crossing has an average daily traffic of 400. Does that mean something different than 400 people crossing every day? Because, really? The barge holds 3 cars, and while it isn't a long trip, I don't see it as getting that much traffic every day. I've spent some of my lunchtimes there, and honestly don't recall ever seeing the ferry in action.
A tugboat propels the barge across the river, not poles or horses on treadmills anymore.
The view during the crossing wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
I think there was a crew team practicing rowing, and some other boats docked downriver.
The ferry does this sort of curve down river rather than going straight across, which is why you can't see it in that first picture. It turns out this is because, while it starts out about 10 feet deep on the Rocky Hill side, the river becomes only 2 feet deep in the middle, and then deepens out to about 25 feet on the other side. In order to get across, the ferry goes down river along deeper waters.
We arrived safely in Glastonbury.
It pretty much looks like the reverse of the landing we came from, except there isn't a park and there's a blinking traffic light. Beyond this, there are farms and quaint, historic looking houses. If we weren't moving, and I with only my phone-camera, I may have taken more pics because it was quintessentially New Englandy.
The SECOND oldest continuously operating ferry in the nation is 25 miles away at Chester - Hadlyme, and runs through November. Maybe I'll find some time to visit that one, too, but it is ONLY the SECOND oldest ferry.
When the weather is nice, sometimes we'll take a drive down to the park there at the ferry landing. There's also a seasonal snack shack there that provided me with greasy clam strips more than once this summer. Anyway, since the ferry season only runs until October 31st, we figured we'd better satisfy our curiosity and ride the ferry, lest we have to wait until May.
There's a nice, new sign at the ferry park, but I didn't take a picture of it.
We drove up to the landing and waited.
We had just missed it, actually. It had pulled away from the landing as we drove up.
I wasn't paying attention, so I don't know how long it took for the ferry to come back. Not long, though, because the river is not particularly wide there.
We drove onto the ferry.
This was, to my best recollection, the first time I ferried an automobile on a ferry. It sort of made me queasy, what with the feeling like I'm floating in the car feeling.
The ferry guy collected our fare. $3.00 for the vehicle, including passengers. There is a commuter rate of $2.00 with commuter coupons, and it is a buck as a walk-on pedestrian or with a bike. Wikipedia tells me this is handy, because otherwise it would be a 13 mile detour. It also says that that the crossing has an average daily traffic of 400. Does that mean something different than 400 people crossing every day? Because, really? The barge holds 3 cars, and while it isn't a long trip, I don't see it as getting that much traffic every day. I've spent some of my lunchtimes there, and honestly don't recall ever seeing the ferry in action.
A tugboat propels the barge across the river, not poles or horses on treadmills anymore.
The view during the crossing wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
I think there was a crew team practicing rowing, and some other boats docked downriver.
The ferry does this sort of curve down river rather than going straight across, which is why you can't see it in that first picture. It turns out this is because, while it starts out about 10 feet deep on the Rocky Hill side, the river becomes only 2 feet deep in the middle, and then deepens out to about 25 feet on the other side. In order to get across, the ferry goes down river along deeper waters.
We arrived safely in Glastonbury.
It pretty much looks like the reverse of the landing we came from, except there isn't a park and there's a blinking traffic light. Beyond this, there are farms and quaint, historic looking houses. If we weren't moving, and I with only my phone-camera, I may have taken more pics because it was quintessentially New Englandy.
The SECOND oldest continuously operating ferry in the nation is 25 miles away at Chester - Hadlyme, and runs through November. Maybe I'll find some time to visit that one, too, but it is ONLY the SECOND oldest ferry.