History
The general route and construction of the Turnpike were both mandated by state law. Intended to relieve congestion on U.S. Route 1 and Route 15 (the Merritt and Wilbur Cross parkways), design work began in 1954. The Connecticut Turnpike opened on January 2, 1958; however, the westernmost portion of the highway (the three miles (5 km) connecting Greenwich with the New England Thruway) opened ten months later. Tolls were originally collected through a series of eight toll booths along the route. The state stopped collecting tolls on all portions of the Turnpike by December 31, 1985.
Local legend is the initial phase of Turnpike construction in 1954 was so disruptive in heavily Republican Fairfield County that local voters there turned on incumbent Republican Governor John Davis Lodge, leading to his defeat by Abraham Ribicoff.
Read more about this topic: Connecticut Turnpike
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“American time has stretched around the world. It has become the dominant tempo of modern history, especially of the history of Europe.”
—Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)
“While the Republic has already acquired a history world-wide, America is still unsettled and unexplored. Like the English in New Holland, we live only on the shores of a continent even yet, and hardly know where the rivers come from which float our navy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)