NEW HAVEN, a town of the United States of North America, state of Connecticut, pleasantly situated on a plain at the head of New Haven Bay, an inlet of Long Island Sound, 76 miles N.E. of New York, and 160 S.W. of Boston. The plain on which it stands slopes gradually to the sea, and is bounded on the other three sides by hills, which on the E. and W. form steep and rugged precipices, from 300 to 400 feet high. Three small rivers traverse the plain from N. to S.; the Quineapack on the E., the Mill River which joins the former near its mouth, and the West River; and these rivers are crossed by several bridges. The town is regularly laid out, and very handsomely built; the streets are broad, and in general lined with rows of fine elms; and in the centre there is a public park, surrounded and intersected by numerous avenues of elms. On account of this conspicuous feature, New Haven has been called the "City of Elms." There are also several other squares; and the public burial-ground is beautifully adorned with trees, shrubs, and flowers. The state house is a handsome building of brick, covered with stucco, in the Grecian style, and contains halls for the legislature and courts of law. There are about 22 churches, many of which are remarkable for neatness and elegance. Of these 8 are Congregational, 4 Episcopal, 4 Methodist, 2 Baptist, 2 Roman Catholic, 1 Universalist, and 1 Jewish synagogue. There is also a handsome state hospital, built of stone, and placed on a rising ground. Yale College, which is next to Harvard, the principal university in the United States, was founded in 1700, and transferred to New Haven in 1717. It has extensive buildings, partly of brick and partly of stone; and that which contains the library is a handsome Gothic structure. It has 24 professors, 365 students, and a library of 63,500 volumes. There are at present five departments in this college—those of arts, divinity, medicine, law, and science. Yale College has a valuable museum of mineralogy and geology, which is the finest of the sort in the United States, and surpassed by few in the world. New Haven has also numerous schools which enjoy a high reputation, and several literary and scientific societies. It is connected by railway with the principal places in the surrounding country; and steamers ply daily between this and New York. The railway station for all the lines that lead to the town is a handsome building of brick with towers. The harbour is large and safe, but the shallowness of the water prevents the entrance of large vessels; and, though a long quay has been built into the centre, the continual accumulation of sand at the bottom has neutralized all the benefit that might have been derived from this erection. The trade of the port is chiefly with the West Indies, and mules form one of the principal articles of export. The number of vessels that entered from foreign parts in the year ending June 30, 1852, was 110, and the tonnage 21,356; those that cleared were 108, and the tonnage 20,580. The manufactures of the town are considerable; and the principal articles produced are carriages, clocks, India-rubber goods, boots, shoes, and hardware. Pop. (1850) 22,529; (1853) about 23,000.