INTRODUCTION 

Since 1951 downtown Middletown has been effectively separated from the Connecticut River by a stretch of limited-access highway called Route 9.  Middletown was once a place where the world was readily available.  It was once the setting for a vibrant international shipping port.  Then circumstance and history changed the way the world worked, and reshaped the industry of the newly United States.  During the nineteenth century international shipping out of Middletown declined and the river’s traffic tapered to passenger steamers and regional traders.  By the turn of the twentieth century industrialization and railroads had overtaken much of New England.  Middletown’s position as a thriving port of call was basically a thing of the storied past, and the automobile revolution was waiting just around the corner.  In 1946 when the decision was made by the state to construct a highway called Acheson Drive along the waterfront to the east of Main Street, dissent was elusive, while praise for the coming future was effusive.  A place whose identity was once defined by its lifeline-like connection to the Connecticut River was altogether ready and willing to sever that tie; to forget a beautiful and tragic history. 

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