Merritt Parkway – Fairfield County CT

Description

The historic Merritt Parkway was constructed during the 1930s with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds. “In spring 1934, a $347,000 PWA grant was approved for grading and bridges along seven miles of the highway in Greenwich and Trumbull with an additional grant of $91,077 awarded later the same year.” (LOC.gov .pdf) (Though the project continued for several years afterward, this would be the extent of federal funding contributions to the highway.)

Listed in the Historic Register of Historic Places, highlights of the project include a large collection of unique and historic highway bridges.

“The Merritt Parkway is of national significance as an outstanding and largely intact example of the early twentieth-century parkways created as an outgrowth of the City Beautiful Movement. It was the first divided-lane, limited-access road in Connecticut. The Merritt is significant in the history of transportation because it culminated a generation of experiments in combining the talents of engineers, landscape architects, and architects to create parkways that served recreational purposes and gave aesthetic pleasure while providing safe transportation. In it, all the best features developed in its predecessors were put together to create the quintessential parkway.” (LOC.gov)