Mystic, Connecticut

The Mystic River Bascule Bridge is a bascule bridge spanning the Mystic River in Mystic, Connecticut in the United States. It carries vehicle and foot traffic directly into the tourist district of town via 33 ft-wide (10 m) Main Street (U.S. Route 1).

The Mystic Bridge Historic District is a historic district in the village of Mystic, Connecticut on the Stonington side of the Mystic River. It includes the Mystic Seaport Museum, whose grounds and floating vessels represent the area's history, and the 1924 Mystic River Bascule Bridge. The district is significant as a well-preserved shipbuilding and maritime village of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Argia is a two-masted, gaff topsail schooner. Argia's home port is Mystic, Connecticut, United States. The Argia was built in 1986 to be used as a tourism and charter vessel.Argia operates during the months of May through October. She is a replica of a 19th-century schooner, designed and built by Captain Frank Fulchiero. Fulchiero named the boat after Argia the water nymph of the Tiber River in Rome. She carries up to 49 passengers on the waters of Fishers Island Sound for two to three hour day sails, charters, and marine science/ coastal ecology programs. The Coastal Ecology Program utilizes various sampling and testing techniques to provide students with a better understanding of marine and coastal ecosystems.

The Rossie Velvet Mill Historic District is located in the village of Mystic in Stonington, Connecticut. Its main focus is the former Rossie Velvet Mill, a large brick industrial facility on the east side of Greenmanville Avenue that is now a research center for the nearby Mystic Seaport Museum. The district extends along Greenmanville Avenue between Pleasant Street in the north and the museum complex in the south. Most of the buildings in the district are residential housing built to house workers at the mill, and were built between about 1850 and 1950. The district includes 51 properties in 120 acres (49 ha). The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 9, 2007.The area that houses the Rossie Velvet Mill was primarily agricultural until the mid 19th Century, with its farmers providing goods to the shipbuilders and other businesses in Mystic. A small textile mill began operation on the bank of the Mystic River in 1850, on what are now the grounds of the museum, precipitating development as a modestly scaled industrial area. In 1897, the Rossie Velvet Mill was established spurred on by two factors: first, a local business development group recruited velvet makers from Germany to the area, repeating a success in Stonington village, and second, the McKinley Tariff of 1890, which encouraged the owners of a velvet mill in Süchteln (northwestern Germany) to relocate to the United States and open a manufacturing facility to avoid the tariff. This business was a major local success, employing 200 workers (including a significant number of experienced German immigrant weavers) at what was the village's largest employer. The Rossie operation failed during the Great Depression, but the plant was soon operating again under different ownership. Finally, the mill permanently closed in 1958.

L. A. Dunton is a National Historic Landmark fishing schooner and museum exhibit located at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut. Built in 1921, she is one of three remaining vessels afloat of this type, which was once the most common sail-powered fishing vessel sailing from New England ports. In service in New England waters until the 1930s and Newfoundland into the 1950s. After a brief period as a cargo ship, she was acquired by the museum and restored to her original condition.

Mystic station is an intercity train station on the Northeast Corridor, located off Roosevelt Avenue (US 1) east of downtown Mystic, Connecticut. It is served by a limited number of trains on Amtrak's Northeast Regional service, with three to five daily trains in each direction. Amtrak's Acela also passes by this station, but does not stop. Mystic is one of only three stations on the Northeast Corridor (along with adjacent stations Westerly and Kingston to the north) to be served exclusively by Amtrak, with no commuter rail service. The first Mystic station opened in 1858; it burned down and was replaced in 1866. The current station building was built in 1905. A classic small American train station, it was used as the model for American Flyer model stations for over 50 years. The station only has low platforms, unlike most Amtrak stations on the Northeast Corridor; however, a wheelchair lift is available for accessibility. The station building is used as a coffee shop and passenger waiting area.

Mystic Museum of Art is a museum of American art at 9 Water Street in Mystic, Connecticut. The Mystic Art Association, an organization of artists who painted in the seacoast town, was founded by Charles Harold Davis in 1913. It opened the Mystic Arts Center in 1931 as an exhibition space and museum.Mystic Arts Center was renamed Mystic Museum of Art in 2016. Its permanent collection features works by Davis, Robert Brackman, Yngve Edward Soderberg, J. Alden Weir, Charles Herbert Woodbury, and many others.Official website

Emma C. Berry is a fishing sloop located at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut, United States, and one of the oldest surviving commercial vessels in America. She is the last known surviving American well smack. This type of boat is also termed a sloop smack or Noank smack. The Noank design was imitated in other regions of the United States. Emma C. Berry was built in 1866 at the Palmer Shipyards in Noank, Connecticut by James A. Latham. The boat was named for Captain John Henry Berry's daughter. In 1886 she was rigged as a schooner, and in 1916 a gasoline engine was added. She was restored in 1931 to her original condition. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1994.

The Mystic River is a 3.4-mile-long (5.5 km) estuary in the southeast corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. Its main tributary is Whitford Brook. It empties into Fishers Island Sound, dividing the village of Mystic, Connecticut between the towns of Groton and Stonington. Much of the river is tidal. The Mystic River was the location of three large shipbuilding firms during the 19th-century, and it is now the home of the Mystic Seaport maritime museum. The name Mystic is derived from the Pequot term "missi-tuk", describing a large river whose waters are driven into waves by tides or wind, according to the Mystic River Historical Society.

The Mystic River Railroad Bridge is a railroad bridge carrying Amtrak's Northeast Corridor over the Mystic River in Mystic, Connecticut, between the towns of Groton and Stonington. There have been three bridges at this location. The first bridge was a single-tracked, wooden drawbridge in 1819, which was replaced with a steel swing bridge in 1875.The current bridge was built in 1984, and is a truss-style swing bridge, providing 13 feet (4.0 m) of vertical clearance when closed.The two tracks running over the bridge are owned by Amtrak, are part of its Northeast Corridor route, and are used to operate its Northeast Regional and Acela Express services. There is a proposal, however, to extend Shore Line East Commuter Rail Service from its current terminus in New London to Mystic, which would require crossing this bridge. The bridge is the easternmost drawbridge on the Amtrak-owned Northeast Corridor in Connecticut.

Sabino (pronounced Sah-BYE-No) is a small wooden, coal-fired steamboat built in 1908 and located at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut. It is one of only two surviving members of the American mosquito fleet, and it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992.

La Amistad (pronounced [la a.misˈtað]; Spanish for Friendship) was a 19th-century two-masted schooner, owned by a Spaniard colonizing Cuba. It became renowned in July 1839 for a slave revolt by Mende captives, who had been captured and sold to European slave traders and illegally transported by a Portuguese ship from West Africa to Cuba in violation of existing European treaties against the Atlantic slave trade. Two Spanish plantation owners, Don José Ruiz and Don Pedro Montes, bought 53 captives, including four children, in Havana, Cuba, and were transporting them on the ship to their plantations near Puerto Príncipe (modern Camagüey, Cuba). The revolt began after the schooner's cook jokingly told the slaves that they were to be "killed, salted, and cooked." Sengbe Pieh, a Mende man, also known as Joseph Cinqué, unshackled himself and the others on the third day and started the revolt. They took control of the ship, killing the captain and the cook. In the melee, three Africans were also killed. Pieh ordered Ruiz and Montes to sail to Africa. Instead, Ruiz and Montes sailed north, up the east coast of the United States, sure that the ship would be intercepted and the Africans returned to Cuba as slaves. A US ship, the revenue cutter Washington, seized Amistad off Montauk Point in Long Island, New York. Pieh and his group escaped the ship but were caught offshore by citizens. They were incarcerated in New Haven, Connecticut, on charges of murder and piracy. The man who captured Pieh and his group claimed them as property. La Amistad was towed to New London, Connecticut, and those remaining on the ship were arrested. None of the 43 survivors on the ship spoke English, so they could not explain what had taken place. Eventually language professor Josiah Gibbs found an interpreter, James Covey, and learned of the abduction. Two lawsuits were filed. The first case was brought by the Washington ship officers over property claims and the second case was the Spanish being charged with enslaving Africans. Spain requested President Martin Van Buren to return the African captives to Cuba under international treaty. Because of issues of ownership and jurisdiction, the case gained international attention. Known as United States v. The Amistad (1841), the case was finally decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of the Mende, restoring their freedom. It became a symbol in the United States in the movement to abolish slavery.