Hartford

Midway between New York City and Boston, Hartford is Connecticut's capital city. Founded in 1635 on the banks of the Connecticut River, Hartford was at various times home to authors Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe, inventors Samuel and Elizabeth Colt, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, and Ella Grasso, the first woman to be elected a state governor. Today, Hartford, where America's insurance industry was born in the early 19th century, is poised for change, with a new convention center and new hotels (the Hilton Hartford and the Hartford Marriott Downtown) opened in 2005 and ground broken for the Connecticut Center for Science and Exploration (scheduled to open in 2008). Hartford, which already ranks in the top 6% of metropolitan areas in North America for its arts and culture, is a destination on the verge of discovery.