Geography
The Talcott Mountain ridgeline, located in Farmington, West Hartford, Avon, Bloomfield, and Simsbury, Connecticut, is composed of a tiered series of west facing cliffs punctuated by knobs and peaks. Two of the ridge tiers are distinct along most of the mountain's length; additional tiers manifest themselves over shorter sections of the mountain. Talcott Mountain is 3 miles (5 km) at its widest point. Notable peaks on the ridge include the high point, on which stands the historic Heublein Tower, 950 ft (290 m); Ely Mound, 820 ft (250 m), a conical peak south of the main summit overlooking Ely Pond; Kilkenny Rocks, 730 ft (223 m), an exposed ledge near the southern end of the mountain; King Phillip Mountain, 920 ft (280 m), just north of the main summit; Burnt Hill, 447 ft (136 m), a summit located on the southeast side of the mountain; and The Pinnacle (not to be confused with Pinnacle Rock of Farmington Connecticut, also part of the Metacomet Ridge to the south), 737 ft (225 m), in Penwood State Park, just north of the centerpoint of the mountain.
Talcott Mountain is an important aquifer serving metropolitan Hartford and several other communities. Notable reservoirs and other bodies of water on the mountain include: Wash Brook Pond; Lake Louise, a glacial kettle pond with a swamp boardwalk, observation platform, and waterfall; Hartford Reservoirs #'s 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6; Hoe Pond; Ely Pond; Dyke Pond; and Woodridge Lake.
Talcott Mountain is traversed by the following roads (from south to north), Connecticut Route 4, U.S. Route 44, and Connecticut Route 185. A network of suburban streets climb the southern slopes of the mountain, and a number of communications towers sprout from the summit peaks.
The Metacomet Ridge extends north from Talcott Mountain as Hatchet Hill and south as Farmington Mountain. The north and west sides of the mountain drain into the Farmington River, thence into the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound. The Farmington River runs along the east base of the mountain, cutting through the Metacomet Ridge between Talcott Mountain and Hatchet Hill at the Tarrifville Gorge. The east side of the mountain drains into the Park River, thence into the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound.
Read more about this topic: Talcott Mountain
Famous quotes containing the word geography:
“The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose boundary conditions are experience.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;—and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“At present cats have more purchasing power and influence than the poor of this planet. Accidents of geography and colonial history should no longer determine who gets the fish.”
—Derek Wall (b. 1965)