Merritt Parkway

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Merritt Parkway in autumn.

The Merritt Parkway is a limited-access highway in Fairfield County, Connecticut, designated as a National Scenic Byway. Signed as Route 15, it runs from the New York state line in Greenwich, where it serves as the continuation of the Hutchinson River Parkway, to the Housatonic River in Stratford, where the Wilbur Cross Parkway begins. However, it is the nearly universal habit of local residents when giving directions to describe the entire length of Route 15 as the "Merritt," which often confuses visitors and new residents since most printed maps label the segments of Route 15 by their official names.

The Merritt can be distinguished from the Wilbur Cross, however, as in addition to the scenic layout and architecturally elaborate overpasses, it has wider lanes and shoulders.

The Merritt Parkway is one of the oldest parkways in the United States and is acknowledged for the beauty of the forest that it passes through, as well as the architectural design of its overpasses. At the time of its construction, each bridge was decorated in a unique fashion so no two bridges on the parkway looked alike. Some of these bridges were constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It is the only United States highway listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Recent reconstruction on several of the parkway's bridges did not maintain this tradition, and as a result the highway is now spanned by several ordinary modern bridges constructed using undecorated concrete on steel I-beams.

A bridge on the parkway.

The parkway has two lanes in each direction. Due to its age, it was originally constructed without the merge-lanes, long on-ramps, and long off-ramps that are found on modern limited-access highways. Some entrances have perilously short and/or sharp ramps; some entrances even have stop signs, with no merge lane whatsoever; this leads to some very exciting entrances onto the highway. Most have since been modernized, with the interchange of Rt. 111 in Trumbull featuring Connecticut's first single point urban interchange (SPUI). The speed limit on the parkway ranges from 45 to 55 mph (70 to 90 km/h).

The highway was named after U.S. Congressman Schuyler Merritt. The section from Greenwich to Norwalk opened on June 29, 1938 and the section from Norwalk to the Housatonic River opened in 1940.

Tollbooth 1955

Tolls were collected on the parkway at one toll plaza in Greenwich from June 21, 1939 until June 27, 1988. However, two additional tolls were also located on the Wilbur Cross Parkway, in Milford and Wallingford.

In April 2001, an almost-complete reissuance of the parkway's signs was carried out, creating a uniform white-on-green and sawtooth border.

1 Miscellany
2 Exit list
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Miscellany

Tree canopy over the Merritt, and grassy median

When the parkway was first opened, families flocked to it to picnic in the grassy area in between the eastbound and westbound lanes.
Vestiges of old picnic areas can still be seen along the highway.
The highway still contains several service areas (gas station and convenience store).
One of Denise Levertov's poems is about the parkway.
Vehicles over 2.5 meters (8 feet) in height, weighing more than 3,650 kg (8,000 lb), towing a trailer, or containing more than four wheels are not allowed on the parkway.^[1].
Bruce Radde's book "The Merritt Parkway"(ISBN 0-300-06877-8) was published in 1993 by Yale University Press. It details the construction of the parkway and includes many pictures dating from the road's early days.
Richard Shindell wrote an instrumental piece entitled "Merritt Parkway, 2 AM." The song can be found on his album, Somewhere Near Paterson, which was released in 2000.
One of the parkway's former toll plazas is now preserved in Stratford's Boothe Memorial Park (name purely coincidental), near Exit 53, complete with still-flashing lights over each toll lane.
The parkway can be seen very briefly in the remake of the movie The Stepford Wives.
The parkway is briefly mentioned in "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut" a short story by J.D. Salinger included in the Nine Stories compilation.
Willem de Kooning painted a large oil canvas titled "Merritt Parkway" in 1959. It is owned by The Detroit Institute of Arts.

[edit] Exit list

Number	Mile	Town	Route and Destination	Notes
Merritt Parkway ends at New York state line - Road continues as the Hutchinson River Parkway
27N	0.0	Greenwich	New York State Route 120A (north) King Street Armonk	double exit northbound (before or after underpass); unsigned northbound
		Greenwich	service station (both sides)	Connecticut Information Center (northbound side only)
28	3.5	Greenwich	Round Hill Road
29	4.7	Greenwich	Lake Avenue
31	5.6	Greenwich	North Street	To Greenwich business district
33	8.9	Stamford	Den Road
34	9.5	Stamford	Route 104 Long Ridge Road	To downtown Stamford
35	10.7	Stamford	Route 137 High Ridge Road
36	13.2	New Canaan	Route 106 Old Stamford Road
37	14.1	New Canaan	Route 124 New Canaan Darien
		New Canaan	service station
38	15.9	Norwalk	Route 123 New Canaan Avenue
39	17.3	Norwalk	U.S. Route 7 Norwalk Danbury	northbound exit only split into 39A and 39B
40	17.6	Norwalk	Main Street To US 7	split into 40A and 40B
41	20.6	Westport	Route 33 Westport Wilton
42	21.6	Westport	Route 57 Westport Weston
44	27.0	Fairfield	Route 58 Fairfield Redding	To Fairfield business district
		Fairfield	service station
46	28.5	Fairfield	Route 59 Fairfield Easton
47	29.2	Trumbull	Park Avenue
48	30.6	Trumbull	Route 111 Main Street
49	32.2	Trumbull	Route 25 Bridgeport Danbury	split into 49N and 49S Exit 49S is northbound only
50	32.8	Trumbull	Route 127 Trumbull	southbound exit only
51	33.7	Trumbull	Route 108 Nichols Avenue	northbound exit only
52	34.1	Trumbull	Route 8 Bridgeport Waterbury	also signed southbound as Route 108
53	36.9	Stratford	Route 110 Stratford Shelton
Merritt Parkway ends at Sikorsky Memorial Bridge - Road continues as the Wilbur Cross Parkway