The Great Wall

During the 18th and 19th centuries, two main cities grew up in the Central Valley - Hartford and New Haven. The two competed ardently as centers of agriculture, commerce, education, religion, and government. Both were important ports as well, one on the Connecticut River and the other on the coast. Originally, New Haven was even a separate colony, founded on stricter, more conservative Puritan beliefs. New Haven Colony did not join with the Colony of Connecticut until 1665 - and then only because the alternative was assimilation into much-despised Anglican New York. (One part of New Haven Colony, the town of Southold on Long Island, actually was lost to New York.) Even after the union of the Connecticut and New Haven colonies, tensions ran high in the Central Valley. Consequently, until 1875 Hartford and New Haven both served as the state capital, with the legislature meeting alternately in each city.

At the heart of this commercial and cultural rivalry was a natural wall of rock that separated the two cities. The Great Wall of the Central Valley is the Metacomet Ridge, a nearly continuous ridge of rock that runs from Branford, Connecticut to Northampton, Massachusetts. The ridge lies entirely in the Central Valley and is known by many local names along its north-south route. In Connecticut, it is called Saltonstall Ridge, Totoket Mountain, Beseck Mountain, Higby Mountain, Lamentation Mountain, The Hanging Hills, Avon Mountain, Talcott Mountain, Penwood Mountain, and West Suffield Mountain; in Massachusetts it is known as Provin Mountain, East Mountain, Mount Tom, and the Holyoke Range. In Connecticut, the ridge runs close to the west side of the Valley as far south as Meriden. There, the ridgeline breaks up a bit as it cuts clear across to the other side of the Valley. South of Meriden, the ridge runs close to the Valley's east side until it eventually runs right into the Eastern Uplands in Branford. By swinging across the Central Valley in Meriden, the otherwise north-south Metacomet Ridge neatly separates Hartford from New Haven.

As a major obstacle for horses, wagons, trains, and cars, the Metacomet Ridge has had quite an effect on the commercial develop

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