Connecticut River

The **Connecticut River** is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for 406 miles through four states. It rises at the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada and discharges at Long Island Sound. Its watershed encompasses five U.S. states and one Canadian province, 11,260 square miles via 148 tributaries, 38 of which are major rivers. It produces 70% of Long Island Sound's fresh water, discharging at 19,600 cubic feet per second.

The Connecticut River Valley is home to some of the northeastern United States' most productive farmland, as well as a metropolitan region of approximately two million people surrounding Springfield, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut.

## Course

### Upper Connecticut River

The Connecticut River rises from the Fourth Connecticut Lake, a small pond that sits 300 yards south of the U.S. national border with Chartierville, Quebec, Canada, in the town of Pittsburg, New Hampshire, United States. Beginning at an elevation of 2,670 feet above sea level, the Connecticut River flows through the remaining Connecticut Lakes and Lake Francis – for 14-miles, all within the town of Pittsburg – and then widens as it delineates 255-mile of the border between New Hampshire and Vermont. The Connecticut drops more than 2,480 feet in elevation as it winds south to the border of Massachusetts, at which point it sits 190 feet above sea level.

The region along the river upstream and downstream from Lebanon, New Hampshire and White River Junction, Vermont, is known locally as the "Upper Valley". The exact definition of the region varies, but it generally is considered to extend south to Windsor, Vermont, and Cornish, New Hampshire, and north to Bradford, Vermont, and Piermont, New Hampshire.

### Middle Connecticut River

In the Middle Connecticut region, the river reaches its maximum depth – 130 feet – at Gill, Massachusetts, around the French King Bridge, and its maximum width – 2,100 feet – at Longmeadow, directly across from the Six Flags New England amusement park. The Connecticut's largest falls – South Hadley Falls – features a vertical drop of 58 feet. Lush green forests and agricultural hamlets dot this middle portion of the Connecticut River; however, the region is best known for its numerous college towns, such as Northampton, South Hadley, and Amherst, as well as the river's most populous city, Springfield. The city sits atop bluffs beside the Connecticut's confluence with two major tributaries, the Chicopee River to the east and Westfield River to the west.

The Connecticut River is influenced by the tides as far north as Enfield Rapids in Windsor Locks, approximately 58 miles north of the river's mouth. Two million residents live in the densely populated Hartford-Springfield region, which stretches roughly between the college towns of Amherst, Massachusetts, and Middletown, Connecticut. Hartford, the Connecticut River's second largest city and only state capital, is located at the southern end of this region on an ancient floodplain that stretches to Middletown.

### Lower Connecticut River

15 miles south of Hartford, at Middletown, the Lower Connecticut River section begins with a narrowing of the river, and then a sharp turn southeast. Throughout southern Connecticut, the Connecticut passes through a thinly populated, hilly, wooded region before again widening and discharging into Long Island Sound between Old Saybrook and Old Lyme. Due to the presence of large, shifting sandbars at its mouth, the Connecticut is the only major river in the Northeastern United States without a port at its mouth.

## Bridges

The Connecticut River is spanned by a very large number of bridges along its entire length. However, only two crossings are along the Interstate 95 corridor. These are the Raymond E. Baldwin Memorial Bridge and the AMTRAK Old Saybrook Drawbridge. The Baldwin Bridge actually carries Interstate 95 itself and is the last vehicular crossing downstream on the Connecticut River.