Many American commutes follow a familiar pattern: highways, brake lights, and coffee going cold in the cupholder. Meanwhile, in central Connecticut, something slower is going strong. According to a Connecticut Department of Transportation publication, the Rocky Hill–Glastonbury Ferry is the oldest continuously operating ferry in the United States, with the service dating back to 1655. That's more than a century before the Declaration of Independence, and it still carries people over the Connecticut River from Rocky Hill to Glastonbury.
The details are strange. The same agency notes that the ferry runs only from April 1 to November 30, is closed the day of the Thanksgiving holiday (a single-day exception that falls within that otherwise-open eight-month season, not a separate closing period), and has no scheduled departure times. It departs only when vehicles and passengers arrive. For a service built around waiting a few extra minutes rather than eliminating the wait altogether, running on demand for eight months a year, and having done so for centuries, is a notably different way of thinking about a commute.
From poles to diesel: a long way to go
According to a 2023 Connecticut Public article, the ferry began as a raft propelled along by poles, and eventually became a small boat powered by a horse walking on a treadmill, and it transitioned to steam in the 1800s. Today it is a diesel-powered tug and barge, the same report notes, with the tug being the Cumberland and the three-car barge the Hollister III. That same report says the barge is named for the Hollister family, who ran the ferry beginning around the Revolutionary War.
