The Hanging Hills rise behind this 19th-century view of Meriden. The artist has clearly shown the typical profile of Connecticut's traprock ridges: a steep cliff on the west and a gentler slope to the east. The view looks south.

and Volkswagen bugs all pull over into the climbing lane. Above the road to the east looms the Higby Mountain section of the ridge; to the west is Lamentation Mountain.

The construction of easy routes through the Metacomet Ridge helped settle the rivalry between Hartford and New Haven. Improved transportation homogenized the population, arid old cultural and theological differences have been forgotten. No longer do both cities compete as ports; the rapid access across the ridge to the interior by railroad and interstates made Hartford's Connecticut River port an anachronism. Why should a ship make a long, difficult trip up a winding river when an excellent harbor linked to highways and railways is available on the coast? Where the Farmington Canal failed, rails and blacktop succeeded - New Haven finally has become central Connecticut's one major port. Hartford, for its part, managed to wrest the exclusive right to be state capital. Both cities remain centers of education and culture with universities, theaters, and strong neighborhoods. Each city can now stand securely on its own and save the rivalry for high school football games.

The Rivers of the Valley

Throughout history, rivers have been the great locators of human society. The colonization and industrialization of Connecticut was no exception, and there is hardly a major city in the Central Valley, or the rest of the state, that is not situated on a river or at the mouth of a river. (New Britain is the only city in Connecticut that does not conform to this rule.) Rivers provided food, drinking water, and transportation for industrial development and urban growth. The importance of rivers to native Americans is reflected in the name they gave to this region, quinnehtukqut, meaning "land along the long tidal river' " from which the name of the state, "Connecticut," is derived.' The tidal river referred to in the name is what we now call the Connecticut River - named for the state through which it runs. Thus, the state is named after the river and the river is named after the state.

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