Bridging a Bit of Connecticut History

Back in January I wrote a blog post that mentioned the Gold Star Memorial Bridge wherein my virtual and real-life pal Princess Patti left me a comment that said she remembered crossing the Thames River on the old bridge.  I was a bit perplexed as Patti and I are from the same generation and I just couldn't remember there being another Gold Star Bridge though that was always a good possibility that there was as I didn't grow up in the area due to being an Air Force Brat and spending time in quite a few other parts of the country. Still, her comment stuck with me and I figured it was time to do some research and see what I could find out about the Gold Star Memorial Bridge - a bridge that my mother has always hated driving over for as long as I can remember!

The story of the Gold Star Bridge predates the story of the Connecticut Turnpike (Interstate Route 95/395) which began way back in 1955 ~ even before I was born!   It was then that construction began on the turnpike - a six-lane highway, engineered for a design speed of 60 miles per hour, that extended from the New York State border to East Haven. Once past East Haven, the turnpike continued on with four lanes to the Town of Killingly.  With some local exceptions and a change from steel guardrails to Jersey barriers on the narrow median in most places, Interstate 95/395 is the same today as it was back when it first opened in 1958 although it is no longer the toll road that it once was following the removal of the eight barrier toll plazas from the turnpike on October 9th, 1985.

Long before work began on the Connecticut Turnpike though, construction had already begun on what would eventually become known as "the free section" of Interstate 95 that ran between Waterford and Stonington. The first section was originally intended as an improvement to US Route 1 and opened in 1943 as a 3.6-mile-long, four-lane stretch between Waterford and Groton. That stretch included the Gold Star Memorial Bridge, a toll bridge over the Thames River between New London and Groton. This was probably the original Gold Star Memorial Bridge that Patti remembered!


In 1963 the tolls were removed from the bridge and in the mid-1970's a parallel span over the Thames River was constructed right next to the original bridge. This may be the "new" bridge that Patti was thinking of!  At the same time improvements were made to the original Gold Star Memorial Bridge as well as to the interchanges at the western bridge approach and since then it's pretty much stayed the same.  The twin bridges have eleven spans each, which makes the Gold Star the longest bridge in Connecticut, with an average of 117,000 vehicles a day making the crossing over the Thames River.

During my research I was also able to find out that the bridge was designated as the "Gold Star Memorial Bridge" in honor of those members of the Armed Forces of the United States from Groton, New London, and Waterford who lost their lives during World War I, World War II, and the war in Korea.  When the bridge was named in 1963, I'm pretty sure no one had thought about what toll the Vietnam War was going to take otherwise I'm sure those service members who lost their lives in that horrific campaign would have been honored also.


Perhaps it's only fitting that on the northern side of the Gold Star Memorial Bridge stands the United States Coast Guard Academy on the New London side and on the Groton side, the Navy's very first Submarine Base as well as The Submarine Force Library & Museum which is the Home of the USS Nautilus - the world's first nuclear powered vessel, first ship to go to the North Pole, and first submarine to journey "20,000 Leagues under the sea." Pretty cool, huh?

New London On a Nice Day

Callooh! Callay! It was a beautiful day!  And I got to get out and enjoy it a little bit.

Sunny blue skies and temps in the low 40's - just what the doctor would order to lift one's spirits and make the winter more bearable. I posted on my Facebook page that I was going to go out and enjoy some sun and my cheeky friend Claire from across the pond insisted that I needed "Pictures or it didn't happen!"  Sheesh ... force me to take the camera out - the nerve!

So where to take the Nikon to prove that I was out enjoying my day rather than sitting at home and waiting for the next storm to hit?  I know, down to the Thames River in New London where I could take pictures of birds in flight with the Gold Star Bridge in the background -

Or a fishing boat docked to unload it's latest catch -

Or the sunken rusted out hull of a what looks to be a former fishing boat that is now home to quite a few seagulls -

Or even better - the United States Coast Guard Cutter Eagle whose homeport is New London; which happens to be home to the United States Coast Guard Academy - a place I would really like to get some pictures of if I can ever figure out how to do so without trespassing on government property and ending up in the brig!

And let's not forget one of my favorite photography targets - trains!  I managed to get these two pictures of Amtrak Acelas without having to wait for hours unlike my pursuit of the elusive New England Central Railway train!

After some coaxing Amanda decided to join me outside and sat in the car with her sketchbook while I snapped pictures.  Part of the deal, though, was that I had to take her to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law.  I had offered to drop her off at the movies while I was out taking pictures but unlike a lot of other teenagers I guess she would rather go to the movies with her mother than alone (I will take that as a compliment whether she meant it that way or not!).

I must say that it's most definitely a different take on the Sherlock Holmes characters that I'm used to but that's perfectly fine by me!  As it turned out, I rather enjoyed sitting in a darkened theater for two hours watching these two guys -

What is it Claire likes to say?  Oh yes ... nom nom nom!!!  Yep, I can be shallow with the best of 'em!

Hope everyone had a lovely Saturday and that your Sunday is great, too.  It's off to work for me but that's okay as it's Chick Flick Sunday where this week we've got Slumdog Millionaire, The Secret Life of Bees and L.A. Without a Map - which stars David Tennant.  Sounds like a good shift to me!

Down By The Thames

Friday evening was gorgeous so I asked my friend Amy if she'd like to head down to Groton with me to try to take some pictures of the full moon. Ever since she took me to Eastern Point Beach to see the fireworks a couple of years ago, I just love that place for picture-taking. I know it's just the Thames River meeting up with the Long Island Sound but there's just something about it that I find really, really appealing plus there's the added bonus of New London Harbor Light just across the Thames River. Amanda could tell you how much I like lighthouses lately so that's a big plus in my book!

This first picture shows a ferry heading over to Long Island and a sailboat coming back towards New London with a beautiful sunset in the background.

The sunset isn't quite as pretty in this picture but you can see New London Harbor Light just on the other side of the Long Island Ferry; it had just become dark enough for the light to come on.

Meanwhile, looking out towards Long Island Sound, there were some beautiful pink clouds dancing in the blue skies.

A couple enjoys the evening sky from the rocks at Eastern Point. You've got to admit, a sky like that is pretty romantic, is it not??

As it got darker, the beacon from New London Harbor Light painted a swath of light on the darkening Thames River.

This shot was taken looking across towards Avery Point in Groton. This time it's the moon casting a glow on the water along with the many lights of Avery Point.

Finally, I may have mentioned before that I take horrible pictures of the moon. It's something I'm just not good at but I do like to try every once in awhile! Even though the moon is just a big ball of light in the night sky, I still rather like this picture. One of these days, I'll figure out how to do take good pictures of the moon - I hope!

Looking at the Sky on Friday - Back on The Thames

You might be a blogger if whenever you head outside with a camera in your hand, you have in the back of your mind that you need to find a good sky shot for your weekly Friday meme!

As I was enjoying the beautiful blue skies down in New London this past Tuesday, I most definitely had in the front of my mind that it was a perfect chance to get a picture or two for Tisha's Looking at the Sky on Friday meme - especially when a puffy white cloud or two floated into the area!

As you can see, there were a couple of light airy clouds floating over the Groton side of the Thames (pronounced like James and not like Tims as our British friends call their river of the same name over The Pond).

I took these pictures from the New London city pier which is located directly behind the Amtrak station and gives a great view of Fort Griswold located on Groton Heights across the Thames.

The City of New London has done a wonderful job fixing up the waterfront area which includes these lovely older style lampposts that line the pier and the walkway along the river. I bet at night they look really nice so I'm going to have to take a trip down there around sunset sometime and see what I can get for pictures.

These flags are also located on the city pier and boy, were they ever blowing in the breeze on Tuesday! If you look closely, I bet you can hear them flapping in the wind!

Whenever I see the American flag in a beautiful setting like this I always think of my father and the other men and women like him - for example Sarge Charlie - who served in the military and fought to keep our country free. I know that if it weren't for them, that flag very well might not be there and I am grateful to every single one of them.

Maybe it's because I was raised an Air Force brat or maybe it's just that I'm a sentimental sap but I do love to see the Stars & Stripes unfurled and waving proudly over our country.

Lastly, this sky shot shows some of the ferries that ply the Thames River going back and forth between Long Island and Fisher's Island. Provided I still go, the high-speed ferry that I will be taking out to Block Island in June will also be leaving from New London. The bridge that you can see in the background is the Gold Star Bridge (a bridge that my mother positively hates to drive over!). Directly on the other side of the Gold Star bridge is the United States Coast Guard Academy and - just a little further up the river - the New London U.S. Navy Submarine Base.

Unfortunately, those blue skies on Tuesday are now just memories found in pictures as we're looking at rain here in Connecticut all day today as well as tomorrow. Sigh. Ah well, April showers are needed if we're going to get those May flowers, right?

Wherever you may be, I hope your Friday skies are beautiful! Don't forget to stop by Tisha's and visit some of the other Looking at the Sky on Friday links!

A Spring Day Along The Thames

This past Tuesday was an absolutely gorgeous day so I decided to ditch the many chores I still have to do around the house and drove down to New London, a former whaling mecca located just south of Norwich and across the Thames River from Groton.

This picture is of Groton and Fort Griswold, a place I've written about in the past, and site of a famous Connecticut Revolutionary War battle involving our own infamous Benedict Arnold.

Benedict Arnold never was at Fort Griswold, though, as he stayed across the Thames in the area of Fort Trumbull, which is on the New London side. This shot was taken from the end of the state fishing pier which juts out into the Thames River from Fort Trumbull State Park. It's a great place to go to try to take pictures of boats that may be traversing the Thames either coming in from or heading out to the Long Island Sound.

With the United States Coast Guard Academy located in New London as well as a Coast Guard station right next to Fort Trumbull, it's pretty easy to catch USCG boats. In the background you can see one of the nuclear submarines that is being built at General Dynamics Electric Boat. EB is responsible for a lot of employment in our area and that includes my son & his wife as well as my brother & his wife - all of whom work in design in one way, shape, or form.

This is the USCG Barque Eagle, a training cutter for future officers of the United States Coast Guard. Built in 1936 initially as a training vessel for the German Navy, she is the only active commissioned sailing vessel in American government service. I'll need to do some more research on her as well as get back to New London some day when the Coast Guard is offering tours - which they do from time to time.

The figurehead of The Eagle is - appropriately enough - an eagle!

The Eagle will be leaving port in New London on April 20th and begin a training cruise that will include Europe, Bermuda, and the Atlantic Coast of North America which includes Canada. She won't be back until August 14th but will no doubt return with a well-seasoned crew of Coast Guard cadets ready to take their places on active duty.

In addition to taking pictures along the Thames, I wanted to try my hand at some railroad photography - especially moving trains - to see how well I did. This one above is my favorite of the group that I took and is one of the many Acela trains that pass through New London. This particular train was heading south.
One of the guys I work with in dispatch would love to have this fella's job as he loves all things train-related. Actually, being a conductor would probably be a pretty cool job especially if you were lucky enough to get one of the cross-country routes. This particular conductor was heading up to Boston.

Another Acela train heading south to New York and points beyond.

I like the way that the lamps are reflected in the train car's windows in this picture so even though it might be an otherwise boring picture, I decided to include it!

Finally, my afternoon in New London the other day was pretty much for the birds as there were seagulls everywhere! Of course what else does one expect that close to the open sea?!

So there you have it, a few of my 261 pictures that I took on a gorgeous Tuesday afternoon as March came to a close. I hope you enjoyed looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them. Let me know if you think I need more practice, though, as I'll be happy to go back down and try it again as not only did I have a good time snapping pictures but I got a lot of exercise and even had a little extra energy (no diet pills required!).

Looking at the Sky on Friday

It's Friday again and that has all of us Looking at the Sky on Friday with Tisha of CrAzY Working Mom - yay! Don't forget to pop on by her blog and click on the links to see some great sky shots!

Last Saturday while I was out walking around parts of New London I stopped in at Fort Trumbull State Park. The current fort was built from 1839-1852 with the first fort on the site being built in 1775. That makes it history and you know how I feel about history!

Even though the fort isn't open for the season yet, the grounds are and you can walk around the outside of the fort which is located on the Thames River and not quite directly across from Fort Griswold, a place I've previously written about and where a bloody Revoluntionary War massacre occured.

As I walked around the grounds of the fort on Saturday with a beautiful blue sky above me, I knew I was going to have no problem finding pictures for today's meme and I didn't!


This tree is just inside the entrance to the fort and stands all by itself just past the Visitor's Center. It's extremely tall and I bet is quite handsome when its branches are covered in leaves. With any luck that time won't be that much longer!


These trees stand to the side of the fort and obviously have been affected by the winds that blow in off of the Thames River. Again, I bet they look quite nice with leaves and as I'm planning another trip down to Fort Trumbull after it opens for the season, I'll have to remember to take some pictures for comparison.

I have some more pictures of the fort to show you in a future post but I thought these two were the best for the beautiful blue sky and wispy clouds that making Looking at the Sky on Friday such a fun thing to do.

May all your Friday skies be blue!

Sunday Scenery

Finally and at long last, Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day here in Connecticut plus I had no more painting to do in Amanda's room so I decided to let the rest of the house sit and drove down to New London with my camera to see what I could find for a potential post for Lee's Sunday Scenery meme.

My original intention was to go to the train station and take some pictures there but then I decided to see if I could find the lighthouse that I knew was on the New London side of the Thames River. I'd seen it many times from the Groton side of the river but had never gone looking for it but yesterday was the perfect day to go for a ride.

Luckily, the lighthouse turned out to be quite easy to find (I just followed the road by the river!) and as there appeared to be nobody home I parked down the road a ways and then walked back to get a closer look. The lighthouse is on private property but I kind of trespassed a little on the rental property next door to the lighthouse (sshh, don't tell anyone!).


Replacing the original 64-foot stone tower with a wooden lantern that was erected at the west side of the harbor entrance in 1761, the New London Harbor Light was built in 1801. Standing at 89-feet tall, the octagonal stone lighthouse with a cast-iron lantern is the oldest and tallest existing lighthouse in Connecticut and was one of the earliest American lighthouses with a flashing light. The present keeper's house was built in 1863 and was enlarged in 1900.

The keeper's house seemed pretty much abandoned and it looks like it's need of a little TLC - at the very least someone could remove the wreath from the front door! I'm not sure if someone currently resides there or not (maybe one of my readers knows?) but I do know that the lighthouse is not open to the public at all which is too bad - gimpy back and all I'd love to climb to the top and check out the view!


Speaking of views, this picture is just a slightly different view, taken from the front of the driveway rather than from the side of the house next door (which looks to be a lovely rental if one had the cash for such a thing!).

Once you're done oohing and aahing over the beautiful blue skies in these pictures, don't forget to pop by Lee's Tarheel Ramblings and check out the rest of the Sunday Scenery!

Fireworks From the Point

With weather much better last night then there was last Saturday for the fireworks in Norwich, Amy and I decided that it would be nice to take the girls down to see the fireworks for the annual Sailfest in New London. Normally I avoid these particular festivities like the plaque as I am a self-professed crowd-hater but I'd always heard how good the fireworks in New London were and I wanted to try my hand at some more fireworks pictures in the hopes that they would come out better than those of last week. Plus it was a beautiful night and Amy grew up down that way so knew where she was going and all I had to do was kick back and enjoy! Now that's my kind of evening!

After driving past the area of Fort Griswold in Groton and deciding that it was best to be avoided due to the massive amount of people heading in that direction, Amy decided that the best place to go would be Eastern Point Beach which is where the Thames River meets the Long Island Sound. I had never been there before but I plan on definitely going again - especially some evening during a full moon or maybe even when there's a storm if I'm really feeling adventurous!

Amanda, Cate, and Jamie wasted no time in finding the perfect spot on a rock to look at the Sound before watching the fireworks so while they sat there like seals or mermaids - take your pick! - enjoying the beautiful evening, I decided to walk around a bit and take a few pictures. Wait ... let me amend that ... I decided to walk around and take a lot of pictures! You can see most of them in the slideshow at the end of this post but until you get there, here are a couple of my favorites ...

Waves on the rocks

The sun setting over New London on the opposite side of the Thames River

Moonlight reflecting off of the Long Island Sound
That's Ledge Lighthouse directly under the moon though you can't make it out in this picture.

The fireworks were scheduled to go off at 9:30 -which they did right on time. Amy had brought a radio with her (and apparently was the only one in the crowd who had!) so we were able to watch the fireworks with the accompanying music. We were a good distance from the barges they were setting the fireworks off from so we didn't get too many of the booms and pops but the music went perfectly and the show was excellent. My only complaint was the fact that the show was sponsored by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation (who own Foxwoods Casino) and it was ridiculously pathetic how many times that fact had to be mentioned on the radio. Talk about blowing your own horn ... yeesh!

This particular shot is part of the fireworks finale. I think that my pictures came out a bit better this time around even though the smoke was still hanging in the air due to not enough of a breeze to move it along. If I knew how to do all that fancy-dancy stuff like filter it out they would be better but alas, I'm just no good at picture editing - at least not yet! Give me some time and maybe I'll figure it out one of these days!

In the meantime, here are some more pictures of our evening at the Point. We all had a really good time and the most surprising part of all was that we didn't even have to sit in a major batch of traffic to get home which made it an even better evening!