The One Minute Geographer — Connecticut: The Yankee Gadget Maritime State (Part 1)

Place names mentioned in the post. Base map from maps-of-the-usa.com. Red circles added by the author.

The title ‘Yankee Gadget State’ above could be another nickname for Connecticut. We’ll look at a few examples of industries that gave Connecticut its start as an industrialized state, one that led the nation for many years in the development of gadgets and patents.

It started with the sea. With its long coastline on Long Island Sound, Connecticut has always been a maritime state with fishing and whaling villages. In fact, it was initially maritime insurance companies that later evolved into Connecticut’s specialization in all types of insurance, focused primarily at Hartford.

As technology changed from sails, Connecticut kept up and John Fitch built America’s first steam powered boat in South Windsor in 1786. The first military submarine, the Turtle, was built in Connecticut as far back as 1775. That led to submarines being built in Bridgeport for World War I, and then at Groton/New London during WW II, where the first US nuclear-powered sub, the USS Nautilus, was launched in 1954. Connecticut’s maritime heritage is still evident from the location of US Coast Guard Academy in New London and in heritage sites such as Mystic Seaport.