The Friends of Fort Trumbull announce their April Speaker

The Friends of Fort Trumbull State Park are proud to announce their 2019 season will be America on the Move. The Friends are going to travel back in time to explore the history of Transportation, examining a system involving roads, rivers, and railroads which helped to form a national economy. This is a very relevant topic during 2019 as Connecticut debates tolls, the need to update infrastructure such as roads and bridges, and public transportation vs. an emphasis on cars.

Our first speaker, on Thursday, April 25, 2019, will be Richard DeLuca, the author of Post Roads and Iron Horses. Mr. DeLuca’s presentation is entitled “Connecticut in Motion”. He will explore how 400 years of Transportation Technology and Policy have shaped our state. The talk will provide an overview of transportation developments from the turnpike movement of the 1800s through the Farmington Canal, steamboats, steam railroads, electric trolleys and the bicycle in the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century he will mention the automobile and the airplane.

Mr. Deluca earned a Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree from Manhattan College in New York, and a Master of Science degree in transportation planning from the University of Connecticut at Storrs. He has over ten years of experience in the field of engineering as a transportation planner with the Connecticut Department of Transportation and with the Central Connecticut Regional Planning Agency.

For over the past decade, he has been at work on a two-volume history of Connecticut transportation from the colonial period to the present. The first volume, Post Roads & Iron Horses, was published by Wesleyan University Press in December of 2011, and covers the history of Connecticut transportation from colonial times through the age of steam. A second volume on transportation in the twentieth century is in progress. He has published several articles in Connecticut History, the journal of the Association for the Study of Connecticut History.

The public is welcome to attend this free presentation, at 7 p.m., at the Fort Trumbull Conference Center. New members are always welcome. Come early as seating is limited. Bring a friend, stay for refreshments, and get to know us. More information about the Fort and the Friends of Fort Trumbull is available at www.fortfriends.org and on Facebook at Friends of Fort Trumbull State Park.