a city in the United States of North America, capital of Hartford county, Connecticut. It stands on the right bank of the Connecticut River, at the head of the sloop navigation, and 112 miles N.E. of New York. It is connected with East Hartford on the opposite side of the river, by a covered bridge 1000 feet in length. The city is for the most part compactly built, principally of brick and freestone. The state house, erected in 1792, is a Doric edifice, with two porticos, and a dome from which a magnificent view of the city and surrounding country is obtained. Besides the legislative halls, it contains apartments for the several courts of the state and county, and numerous public offices. Hartford is the semi-capital of the state, the legislature meeting alternately here and at New Haven. The city hall fronting the market square is a handsome Grecian building. There were here in 1852 twenty-one churches of various denominations, many of them large and elegant edifices. The educational and literary institutions are numerous and important. Trinity College, an Episcopalcan institution, founded in 1824, has about eighty students, and a library of 15,000 vols. The Wadsworth Atheneum is an elegant granite edifice in the Gothic style, having apartments for the Connecticut Historical Society, with its library of 5000 vols., ancient documents and MSS., and valuable collection of historical relics; the Young Men's Institute, with lecture room, and library of about 10,000 vols.; a picture gallery, &c. The American asylum for the deaf and dumb, the first institution of the kind in the United States, was organised in 1817 by the late Rev. T. H. Gallaudet, LL.D. The average number of pupils is about 200. The lunatic asylum, founded in 1822, had during the year ending April 1, 1853, 321 patients. Hartford is situated on the great line of railways connecting the New England with the Middle, Southern, and Western States, and also on the line of the Providence, Hartford, and Fishkill railway. The more important articles of manufacture are railway carriages, firearms, and hardware. The value of its manufactures for year ending June 1850 was about L723,878. The city is divided into six wards, and is governed by a mayor, elected biennially, six aldermen, chosen annually, and a common council of twenty-four members, also chosen annually. Hartford was permanently settled in 1635; but previous to that time the Dutch had explored the Connecticut, and erected a fort on what is still called Dutch Point in the S.E. part of the city. It was created a city in 1784. Pop. (1850) 17,966, estimated in 1853 at about 22,000.