Merritt Parkway

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The Merritt Parkway is a limited-access highway in Fairfield County, Connecticut, designated as a National Scenic Byway. Signed as Route 15, it runs from the New York state line in Greenwich, where it serves as the continuation of the Hutchinson River Parkway, to the Housatonic River in Stratford, where the Wilbur Cross Parkway begins. The Merritt can be distinguished from the Wilbur Cross, however, as in addition to the scenic layout and architecturally elaborate overpasses, it has wider lanes and shoulders.^{[citation needed]}

The Merritt Parkway is one of the oldest parkways in the United States and is acknowledged for the beauty of the forest that it passes through, as well as the architectural design of its overpasses. At the time of its construction, each bridge was decorated in a unique fashion so no two bridges on the parkway looked alike. Some of these bridges were constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It is one of a handful of United States highway listed in the National Register of Historic Places.^{[citation needed]}

Recent reconstruction on several of the parkway's bridges did not maintain this tradition, and as a result the highway is now spanned by several ordinary modern bridges constructed using undecorated concrete on steel I-beams.

The highway was named after U.S. Congressman Schuyler Merritt. The section from Greenwich to Norwalk opened on June 29, 1938 and the section from Norwalk to the Housatonic River opened in 1940.

The parkway has two lanes in each direction. Due to its age, it was originally constructed without the merge-lanes, long on-ramps, and long off-ramps that are found on modern limited-access highways. Some entrances have perilously short and/or sharp ramps; some entrances even have stop signs, with no merge lane whatsoever; this leads to some very exciting entrances onto the highway. Most have since been modernized, with the interchange of Rt. 111 in Trumbull featuring Connecticut's first single point urban interchange (SPUI). The speed limit on the parkway ranges from 45 to 55 mph (70 to 90 km/h).

Tolls were collected on the parkway at one toll plaza in Greenwich from June 21, 1939 until June 27, 1988. However, two additional tolls were also located on the Wilbur Cross Parkway, in Milford and Wallingford.

In April 2001, an near-complete reissuance of the parkway's signs was carried out, creating a uniform white-on-green and sawtooth border.

Contents 1 History 2 Miscellany 3 Exit list 4 References 5 External links

[edit] History

The Merritt Parkway is the first leg of what would become Route 15. Built between 1934 and 1940, the Merritt runs for 37 miles from the New York state line in Greenwich to the Housatonic River in Stratford. It was conceived as a way to alleviate congestion on the Boston Post Road (Route 1) in Fairfield County.

To ease objections from county residents who feared an influx of New Yorkers on their roads, in their towns, on their beaches and through their forests, highway planners called on the talents of engineers, landscape architects and architects to create a safe and aesthetically pleasing limited access highway - one with exit and entrance ramps, but no intersections - that would not spoil the countryside.

The bridges played a prominent role in the design. Architect George L. Dunkelberger designed them all. They reflected the popularity of the Art Deco style, with touches of neo-classical and modern design.^[1]

[edit] Miscellany

• When the parkway was first opened, families flocked to it to picnic in the grassy area in between the eastbound and westbound lanes.
• Vestiges of old picnic areas can still be seen along the highway.
• The highway still contains several service areas (gas station and convenience store).
• One of Denise Levertov's poems is about the parkway.
• Vehicles over 2.5 meters (8 feet) in height, weighing more than 3,650 kg (8,000 lb), towing a trailer, or containing more than four wheels are not allowed on the parkway.^[1].
• Bruce Radde's book The Merritt Parkway, ISBN 0-300-06877-8, was published in 1993 by Yale University Press. It details the construction of the parkway and includes many pictures dating from the road's early days.
• Richard Shindell wrote an instrumental piece entitled "Merritt Parkway, 2 AM." The song can be found on his album, Somewhere Near Paterson, which was released in 2000.
• One of the parkway's former toll plazas is now preserved in Stratford's Boothe Memorial Park (name purely coincidental), near Exit 53, complete with still-flashing lights over each toll lane.
• The parkway can be seen very briefly in the remake of the movie The Stepford Wives as well as in the 1995 film Die Hard: With a Vengeance.
• The parkway is briefly mentioned in Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut, a short story by J.D. Salinger included in the Nine Stories compilation.
• Willem de Kooning painted a large oil canvas titled "Merritt Parkway" in 1959. It is owned by the Detroit Institute of Arts.

[edit] Exit list

Town	Exit #	Mile	Destinations	Notes
Merritt Parkway ends at New York state line - Road continues as the Hutchinson River Parkway
Greenwich	27	0.0	New York State Route 120A (King Street) — Armonk	Double exit; Signed as Exit 30 on approach from New York (Connecticut did not upgrade it's exit numbers when New York added exits).
			service station (both sides)	Connecticut Information Center (northbound side only)
	28	3.5	Round Hill Road
	29	4.7	Lake Avenue
	31	5.6	North Street	To Greenwich business district
Stamford	33	8.9	Den Road
	34	9.5	Route 104 (Long Ridge Road)	To downtown Stamford.
	35	10.7	Route 137 (High Ridge Road)
New Canaan	36	13.2	Route 106 (Old Stamford Road)
	37	14.1	Route 124 — New Canaan, Darien
			service station
Norwalk	38	15.9	Route 123 (New Canaan Avenue)	To Norwalk Community College.
	39	17.3	U.S. Route 7 — Norwalk, Danbury	Northbound exit only. Split into 39A and 39B.
	40	17.6	Main Street to US 7	Split into 40A and 40B. Unsigned SR 719.
Westport	41	20.6	Route 33 — Westport, Wilton
	42	21.6	Route 57 — Westport, Weston
Fairfield	44	27.0	Route 58 — Fairfield, Redding	To Fairfield business district.
			service station
	46	28.5	Route 59 — Fairfield, Easton
Trumbull	47	29.2	Park Avenue	To University of Bridgeport, Sacred Heart University.
	48	30.6	Route 111 (Main Street)
	49	32.2	Route 25 — Bridgeport, Danbury	Split northbound into 49N and 49S. Access to southbound Route 25 from northbound only.
	50	32.8	Route 127 — Trumbull	Southbound exit only.
	51	33.7	Route 108 (Nichols Avenue)	Northbound exit only.
	52	34.1	Route 8 — Bridgeport, Waterbury	Also signed southbound for Route 108.
Stratford	53	36.9	Route 110 — Stratford, Shelton
Stratford/Milford line		37.5	Merritt Parkway ends - road continues as the Wilbur Cross Parkway Sikorsky Memorial Bridge (Housatonic River crossing)

Map (west segment)

Map (east segment)

[edit] References

1. ^ A Senic Roadway that Bridges many Divides. The Hartford Courant. Retrieved on January 24, 2007.

• Radde, Bruce, "The Merritt Parkway", ISBN 0-300-06877-8. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press 1993.
• "Traveling the Merritt Parkway", ISBN 0-7524-0946-8
• Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress)

[edit] External links

• Photos of the parkway at byways.org
• Photos of and information about the parkway at nycroads.com
• Connecticut Dept of Transportation rules about what vehicles are allowed on the parkway