West Rock Ridge and the distant Western Uplands stand green and forested above the flood of culture inundating the brownstone lowlands of New Haven.

The Coastal Slope and Central Valley have several other advantages for development over the Uplands. Because the land is so level, the two regions are natural transportation corridors, much superior to the narrow, twisty Uplands valleys. Most of the major highways and railroads run either in the Central Valley or along the Coastal Slope; Amtrak, Route 1, Interstates 91 and 95, and the Merritt-Wilbur Cross Parkway all follow the level lands. Cities along the Coast, of course, have the additional advantage of access to port facilities, and the western Coastal Slope is further augmented by spillover from New York City. It is no accident that 15 of the 18 towns in Connecticut with populations greater than 50,000 are either in the Central Valley or on the Coast. (The three towns of that size in the Uplands are Danbury, Bristol, and Waterbury - and almost half of Bristol is actually in the Central Valley.)

It is also no accident that Connecticut as a whole has become such a heavily populated and industrialized state. Because of the Central Valley and Coastal Slope, a good deal of level ground with plentiful

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