Sentence:  With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that <WSD>connects</WSD> Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To join (two other objects), or to join (one object) to (another object): to be a link between two objects, thereby attaching them to each other.