Connecticut Company

Company History: The Connecticut Company was formed in 1907 under the control of the New York New Haven & Hartford to operate hundreds of miles of streetcar lines in Connecticut and Massachusetts that were owned by the New Haven. In 1910, the routes outside of Connecticut were leased to other operators for the purpose of making the Connecticut Company a single state carrier and outside the jurisdiction of the ICC. In 1913, the lines in the eastern portion of the state were leased to the Rhode Island based Shore Line Electric Railway. The following year, the Justice Department moved to break up what they saw as New Haven’s monopoly over transportation in Southern New England. Although many holdings were separated and sold off, a buyer could not be found for the Connecticut Company and control was returned to the New Haven. In 1920, the lease of the eastern lines to Shore Line Electric Railway was canceled.

The Golden Age of Traction drew to a close in 1925 and this corresponds to the first abandonments of Connecticut Company routes. The last street cars ran in the city of New Haven in 1948. By 1964, Connecticut Company was mostly a bus line with a small diesel powered freight railroad line (a portion of the line to Glastonbury) that served a Pratt & Whitney factory. That year, the company defaulted on a federal flood loan. The company was sold and the rail line was renamed East Hartford Freight Company. Operations ended in 1967.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.