Woodlands - East Coast Greenway

The Merritt by bike
When the Merritt was built, planners reserved a parallel corridor
150 feet wide. One group argues that this strip is perfect for a trail.
Millions have experienced the magnificence
of the Merritt Parkway from their
cars, but only a fortunate few have traveled
its wooded environs on foot. Regional Plan
Association, an independent tri-state planning organization,
would like to change that.
RPA has advocated constructing a path along the
Merritt right-of-way since the early 1990s when representatives
of the East Coast Greenway, an urban trail
that will extend from Maine to Florida, presented the
idea to its board. A Merritt trail is not a new idea.
Weld Thayer Chase, the state highway department’s
first landscape architect, has said that planners considered a trail
system when first designing the Merritt but that trails were not
part of the final design. He told this to an environmental planner,
Jennifer Aley, who did a feasibility study for RPA in the early
1990s. Ms. Aley, who now lives and works in Virginia, was not
able to interview him further about the early trail plans, because he
was ill. (Mr. Chase died in 2003.)
In Greenwich, according to Bruce Radde in his book The
Merritt Parkway, a bridle path was partially constructed, and it is
‘The Merritt is
the only logical
place to site an
off-road trail
through Fairfield
County.’
still in use today. Mr. Radde also noted in his book
that it was bicyclists who promoted hard-surface
roads in the 1930s.
The right-of-way’s 150-foot width is filled with
plantings, natural rock outcroppings and meandering
streams. Unique in character, it is easy to understand
why the original designers contemplated a path
along its entire 37.5-mile length. But, alas, uninspired
minds prevailed and the land was eventually
set aside for additional lanes instead. So it was not
until 1990, when Emil Frankel, who then was commissioner
of the Connecticut Department of
Transportation, declared the right-of-way off limits for highway
expansion, that the door reopened for a greenway trail.
Because of dense development and the north-south ridges that
mark the Connecticut topography, the Merritt is the only logical
place to site an off-road trail through Fairfield County. And in
1994, RPA’s Merritt Parkway Trail Study provided the documentation
that demonstrated the feasibility of the trail. The study
generated interest from several communities, but the concept
never really drew the broad consensus that was needed to get the
Above, this early map of the Merritt, from a safety brochure, shows its meandering path just north of Boston Post Road.
New Canaan Historical Society
By Linda Hoza and John Atkin
16 Connecticut Woodlands Spring 2004