History of New Haven Harbor
Soon as I saw the topics for the essay I knew that I want to write about Hew Haven Harbor. Because I live on Morgan Point I was exited to learn more about the harbor in the early days. This essay will discuss the harbor history and importance to the city. New Haven Harbor is an inlet on the north side of Long Island Sound in the state of Connecticut. The harbor area is an inlet carved by the retreat of the glaciers during the last ice age approximately 13,000 years ago. The Harbor is also divided into two parts known as the Outer Harbor and the Main or Inner Harbor. The Outer Harbor is four miles wide and is protected from the Sound by three breakwaters which have been constructed in an irregular line. Two of them run in southwesterly direction from Morgan point nearly to the middle of the bay entrance. The third runs in northwesterly direction toward Oyster River Point. The outer harbor is 31/2 miles long and about 2 miles wide. The Main Inner Harbor which includes the developed parts of the Quinnipiac, Mill and West Rivers is one of the largest and most important ports in the entre Long Island Sound - Block Island Sound region .The Main of Inner harbor, lying north of Sandy Point and Fort Hale, is about 2 miles long and from1 to 1 ½ miles wide. (Parsons)
Adriaen Block, a mariner employed by the Dutch East India Company, originally charted New Haven harbor in 1614. The first European settlement, known as Quinnipiac, was established in 1638 on land purchased from Native Americans by English followers of Puritanism and in 1640 it was renamed New Haven. Shallowness and silt were problems from the very beginning of the New Haven Colony. The settlers set out to improve conditions of the harbor immediately. The labor was great for the settlers had to contend with building on soft mud. Wharves were built in the deeper water. Tidal flats and creeks were filled and the...