Most of what happened to the Mill River happened to it. Marshes were filled, banks were walled, factories were built and the water was used as a drain, and at no point does the record show much of an argument about it.
This stretch is the exception. Here, something was proposed, fought over, and not built.
The proposal
In 1942 New Haven's planners first considered running an arterial road over the Mill River and through East Rock Park. The idea was reconsidered intermittently into the 1950s. By 1959 and 1960, the city, the state and the highway engineers were broadly in agreement about the purpose and the route.
From a 1950s traffic-engineering point of view it was obvious. A river valley is a natural corridor: flat, continuous, already partly cleared, and running in the direction traffic wanted to go. Park land was cheap because the city already owned it.
The fight
Within a few years the East Rock Connector had become a flashpoint. The state highway department described it as an integral part of the state highway system. City officials largely agreed.
Residents did not. Park groups and neighbours called it a waste of good parkland and organised a Save Our Park Committee to stop it.
They did stop it. The connector was never built.
What it cost anyway
Interstate 91 was built, along the eastern edge, and it took roughly ten acres of East Rock Park with it. The park you can walk in today is what survived the compromise, not what was defended.
Why this matters on a trail sign
Almost every other sign on this trail describes something the city did to the river without much public argument. This one describes the moment the argument was had, in public, and the public won part of it.
The trail you are standing on exists because that stayed true: people who use a place turn out to be the ones who defend it.
The sign at this spot
The full sign, in English and Spanish. Zoom in to read it.
This sign is still a draft. The hatched boxes are photographs that have not been sourced yet.
Sources and further reading
Where a link goes to a scanned original — a newspaper page, a map, an engineering journal — it is the actual document, not a summary of it.
- The East Rock Connector — Connecticut roads
- Report of the New Haven Civic Improvement Committee, 1910
- Mill River Trail Framework Plan
- Mill River history — Mill River Trail
Research and credits
Historical research for the Mill River Trail signage was carried out by Colin M. Caplan of Magrisso Forte and John R. Logan, with contributions from Jason Bischoff-Wurstle of the New Haven Museum and walk notes by Steve Hamm. Images are credited individually. Locator maps are drawn from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.