New London CT (Connecticut, Mystic Seaport)

New London is a Thames River port city in Connecticut USA (New London County) with population around 30,000 (metro around 280,000/grouping 21 towns into Norwich-New London). Port New London (at the river's mouth) in the 19th century was one of the world's three largest seaports handling whaling ships - together with Massachusetts' ports Nantucket and New Bedford.

As cruise port, New London CT is the gateway to Mystic CT (accessed via bus tours) where tourists visit the Mystic Seaport Museum (1929-established) - one of the USA's largest maritime museums. Mystic Seaport is sized ~19 acres / ~7,7 hectares (0,08 km2) and houses numerous late-19th/early-20th-century-built wooden vessels (sailing ships and boats, including whaleships) as well as 60+ fully restored historic (Victorian era) buildings.

New London is visited by smaller-sized cruise ships from the fleets of expedition travel companies like AQV-American Queen Voyages (fka AQSC-American Queen Steamboat Company) and National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions.

Thames River flows south for 15 mi / 24 km from Norwich CT (which is the junction of the rivers Yantic and Shetucket) to New London (right bank) and Groton (left bank). Groton (population around 40,000) was established/separated from New London in 1705. Today, both towns are interconnected via the Gold Star Memorial Bridge (1943-opened/1973-twinned) which by length (1941 m / 6368 ft) and deck area (~93000 m2 / ~1 million ft2) is ranked Connecticut's longest and largest. Gold Star Bridge actually combines two steel truss bridges (each composed of 11 spans), carries 11 highway lanes and its daily traffic is 117000+ vehicles.

New London Harbor also is home to the USCG Station New London (adjacent to Fort Trumbull) which is part of CG Sector Long Island Sound. The city also houses the USCGA (United States Coast Guard Academy/1876-founded) providing education to over 1000 cadets/officers-in-training.