Groton, CT area

Traveling down from Cape Cod, I stopped at Newport, R.I., home of the rich and famous.

This is the Cliff Walk, a National Recreation Trail along a National Historic District, through 64 private residences over 3.5 miles.

 

An example of just one of the homes along the walk.

In town I spotted this building and found it was the first U.S. Naval Academy, from 1861-1865. It is now the Newport Elks Lodge.

Groton, CT, is home of one of the largest U.S. Navy submarine bases and the home of the U.S.S. Nautilus. The Nautilus was commissioned in 1954 and was the first nuclear powered submarine.

It is also the base for the U.S. Coast Guard's tall ship, the U.S.S. Eagle. Groton is the home of the Coast Guard Academy and the ship is used for training. When it is in dock, it is open to the public so we got to tour the ship.

South of Groton is the town of Mystic. The highway bridge over the harbor has a drawbridge which is raised on the hour, 40 minutes past the hour during the daytime. The bridge was built in 1922 and is opened appx. 2200 times per year.

In the mid 1800s, the 6 miles of Mystic River was lined with ship yards. In the early 1900s ship building was replaced by textile mills and other manufacturing. Mystic Seaport, founded in 1929, is dedicated collecting, preserving and exhibiting the artifacts and skills related to maritime history.

Fort Griswold, built in 1775, was the site some call the 'massacare at Ft. Griswold'. Troops under the command of former American General Benedict Arnold, led the fleet which appeared at the mouth of the Thames River. In 1781 the British troops attacked Ft. Griswold and some say even after the American's surrendered, the British continued to attack.

In 1775 the first of 3 forts was built on this site. Ft. Trumbull looks across the harbor at the mouth of the Thames River in New London to Ft. Griswold in Groton, CT.

We found an operating cider mill and since it is apple harvesting time, got to see the cider being pressed. The mill has been in operation since 1881.

The chopped and mashed apples are layered between sheets of canvas cloth. They were pressing only 4 layers deep, but can press as many as 10 layers.

When pressed the juice runs out and into a trough, which then flows into a steel tank where it waits to be bottled. Fresh cider has to be refrigerated and will last only about six weeks.