Founded in 1636, Springfield, Massachusetts is located in the center of the Pioneer Valley on the Connecticut River; less than five years later the city’s founder (William Pynchon) was in the business of exporting barrels of salt pork to England. George Washington chose one of Springfield’s bluffs as the site of the new nation’s armory. The choice was strategic—the city’s location was far enough upriver to halt all but the most ambitious assaults from the sea—and the Springfield Armory grew into a major manufacturer and employer. In the nineteenth century, with the Industrial Revolution Springfield became a hive of precision manufacturing and invention, and a hub of river and rail transport.
Relevant Date(s)
Est. 1636