New London's protected deep-draft harbor at the mouth of the Thames River was responsible for its long and influential history as a whaling port. Possessed of an architecturally interesting but largely somnolent downtown district, the city is of note to travelers primarily because it's a transit point for ferry lines connecting the mainland with Block Island, Rhode Island; Long Island, New York; and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Connecticut College (www.conncoll.edu) has a large campus at the northern edge of the city, along Route 32 and Williams Street. At the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (www.cga.edu), north of exit 82A off I-95, a full-rigged sailing vessel, the Eagle, is the academy's principal attraction. Used for training current cadets -- it's the only such vessel actively commissioned in the U.S. -- it is out on tour much of the year, usually from mid-April to mid-September. The Eagle was built in Germany in 1936 to train that country's naval cadets and was taken as a war prize after World War II.
New London was more recently in the news as the focus of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2005 that allowed the city to exercise eminent domain to raze residential homes for a redevelopment plan. What made the decision controversial was that it allowed the government to claim a "public use" need for a project headed up by private developers; the court decided that a project that creates new jobs, increases tax revenues, and revitalizes a depressed area qualifies as public use.
Getting Outside -- Not far from downtown is Ocean Beach Park, at the south end of Ocean Avenue (tel. 800/510-7263 or 860/447-3031; www.ocean-beach-park.com), an expansive recreational facility with a broad sand beach, boardwalk, 50m saltwater pool, carousel and other amusement rids, miniature golf, water slide, bathhouse with lockers and showers, concession stands, and lounge. Parking is $16, which includes park admission for everyone in the car.
From late May to mid-October, Block Island Express (tel. 860/444-4624; www.longislandferry.com/bif/home.htm) operates its high-speed catamaran daily between New London and the Old Harbor on Block Island. The passage takes a little over an hour. Round-trip rates are $37 for adults, $18 for children. Passengers and bicycles only. Reservations are essential.
