To NORTHEAST!
May 14-16 2023
PART 4
I-84 in Waterbury, Conn.
Continuing in Waterbury, whose motto is "What is more lasting than brass?" They must not be familiar with the story of the lost brass mass in 8th grade.
It's...Waterbury!
I-84 at the CT 9 freeway in Farmington. Somewhere near here is the McDonald's I stopped at during my 1991 trip, where some teenagers got thrown out for climbing on the Ronald McDonald statue.
This sign advertises I-91 in Hartford.
I-84 continues through Hartford - the capital of Connecticut but surprisingly only the state's 4th-biggest city.
Downtown Hartford starts to come into view.
Hartford's tallest building is City Place I, the 1980s skyscraper that looms highest here.
Another view of downtown Hartford from I-84.
Other tall buildings here are Goodwin Square (to the immediate right of City Place I) and Hartford 21 (a little to the left).
I-84 approaches I-91, which parallels the Connecticut River here.
Up ahead, I-84 goes through a tunnel.
Still approaching the tunnel.
I-84 has US 6 in Hartford.
This is a prize! I-84 enters East Hartford, and these BGS's look like they date from the freeway's opening circa 1969. Plus, this is as we leave the Bulkeley Bridge over the Connecticut River. The span opened in 1908 and is one of the oldest bridges in the Interstate system.
I-84 is the progenitor of I-384, an 8-mile freeway that was once part of I-84, as it was intended to run all the way to Providence, R.I. It had been slated to be I-82. Before that became I-384 in 1984, I-84 northeast of here was I-86. Rhode Island canceled its stretch of freeway because it was so unpopular. See, we used to have a little thing called democracy.
Still nearing I-384.
Before this stretch of I-84 became I-86 in 1968, it was part of CT 15. It's still labeled as Wilbur Cross Highway.
Another state! Massachusetts! Before I-84 was I-86, CT 15 became MA 15 here.
I-84 again.
We took US 20 as an alternate to the toll I-90. This actually looks better than the rest of this stretch of US 20.
See what I mean?
US 20 in Auburn.