We seek to ensure a balance between the functionality of the parkway as a major thoroughfare and the preservation of the original design of parkway's distinctive bridges and landscape.
Merritt Parkway Resources
Guide to the Merritt Parkway
This new guide is designed to enhance the way neighbors, commuters and passing motorists experience the Merritt Parkway, which connects and unifies the people and special places of Southwest Connecticut. It highlights some of the great bridges and their remarkable details, great old trees, swamps and rivers, stone walls, rock outcrops and more!
The Merritt Parkway: History and Future of a National Treasure
A recorded talk by Wes Haynes, Executive Director of the Merritt Parkway, on the history and current issues facing the Merritt.
HABS/HAER Photographs, Bridge Reports, and History
These resources are the result of a documentation project undertaken by the National Park Service's Historic American Building Survey/Historic American Engineering Record. Note: follow link below, then search for "Merritt Parkway".
"The Merritt Parkway - Connecticut's National Historic Road", Connecticut State Library
An online exhibit including photographs, reports and documents relating to the history of the Merritt Parkway.
"The Merritt Parkway", by Laurie Heiss and Jill Smyth
Meet the bridge artist, the landscapers, the politicians and the activists whose involvement in the Merritt transformed Fairfield County from farms and country estates to one of the wealthiest counties in the nation. With the dedication of preservationists and conservationists, the Merritt Parkway today remains both functional and beautiful, holding a unique place in the heart of Connecticut's drivers.
"The Merritt Parkway", by Bruce Radde
This book traces the history of Connecticut's Merritt Parkway from the proposals for its construction and design in the early 1920s to its triumphant completion in 1940. Filled with vintage and recent photographs, it is not only a picturesque tour of a renowned landmark (the largest Art Deco design in the world), but is also an appraisal of a major contribution to the built environment - one recently placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Yale University Press, 1993.
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"The Merritt Parkway", The New Canaan Historical Society
This is the first comprehensive book to cover the legal, design, planning and regulatory guidelines for the maintenance and preservation of historic roads. Provides criteria for determining a road's historic significance and includes an introduction to relevant transportation policy and laws. Adapts current design and capacity standards recommended by the American Association of State Transportation and Highway Officials specifications to historic road configurations. Includes enlightening case studies and 100 black and white photographs. John Wiley & Sons, 1998.
Available From The New Canaan Historical Society »
"Saving Historic Roads: Design & Policy Guidelines", by Paul Daniel Marriott
This is the first comprehensive book to cover the legal, design, planning and regulatory guidelines for the maintenance and preservation of historic roads. Provides criteria for determining a road's historic significance and includes an introduction to relevant transportation policy and laws. Adapts current design and capacity standards recommended by the American Association of State Transportation and Highway Officials specifications to historic road configurations. Includes enlightening case studies and 100 black and white photographs. John Wiley & Sons, 1998.
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nycroads.com
This site, which provides information on all the major roads in the New York City region, has an excellent little history of the Merritt Parkway and a number of related links.
Preservation Connecticut
Preservation Connecticut is the state's nonprofit leader on historic preservation matters. Current issues in preservation, state policy developments, resources for those interested in preservation and restoration of historic homes and facilities, and a great deal of additional information for preservationists and others who care about maintaining Connecticut's character can be found here.
Go To Preservation Connecticut »
Merritt Parkway in Art
The Parkway has been sketched, painted, photographed, and for all we know, responded to in sculpture! Please view the art work of local artists:
Go to Photographs by Michael Zenreich AIA »
Go to Cindi Mullins Oil and Pastel Paintings »
Go to N.W. Gibbons Wet Plate Photography »
Connecticut Department of Transportation
Current construction in the 5 mile section of the Merritt, through the towns of Westport and Fairfield, involve resurfacing, safety, landscape and bridge improvements. The Connecticut Department of Transportation's website provides updated information on the project and lane closures.
Go to Merritt Parkway Roadwork »