One year after its founding in 1638, eight streets were laid out in a grid of four streets by four streets creating what is now commonly known as the "Nine Square Plan," which is recognized by the American Institute of Certified Planners as a National Historic Planning Landmark. The central common block is New Haven Green a 16-acre (65,000 m) square, now a National Historic Landmark and the center of Downtown New Haven.
New Haven had the first public tree planting program in America, producing a canopy of mature trees (including some large elms) that gave New Haven the nickname "The Elm City."
The city is the home of Yale University. Along with Yale, health care (hospitals, biotechnology), professional services (legal, architectural, marketing, engineering), financial services and retail trade form the base of the economy. Since the mid-1990s, the city's downtown area has seen extensive revitalization.
New Haven is connected to New York City by both commuter rail, regional rail and intercity rail, provided by Metro-North Railroad (commuter rail) and Amtrak (regional and intercity rail) respectively, and some New Haven residents commute to work in New York City (just under two hours away by train). The city's main railroad station is Union Station, which serves Metro-North trains to New York, Shore Line East commuter trains to New London, and Amtrak trains to New York, Hartford, Boston, and Springfield, Massachusetts. An additional station at State Street provides Shore Line East and a few peak-hour Metro-North passengers easier access to and from Downtown.
The start of the New Haven Railroad began in a small area of New Haven called Cedar Hill Area.
A commuter rail line to run along the existing Amtrak line from New Haven through Hartford to Springfield, MA has been proposed by the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT) and is currently in the planning phase.
The City of New Haven is in the very early stages of considering restoring streetcar (light-rail) service, which has been absent since the immediate postwar period.
New Haven lies at the intersection of Interstate 95 on the coast - which provides access southwards and/or westwards to the western coast of Connecticut and to New York City, and eastwards to the eastern Connecticut shoreline, Rhode Island, and eastern Massachusetts - and Interstate 91, which leads northward to the interior of Massachusetts and Vermont and the Canadian border. I-95 is infamous for traffic jams increasing with proximity to New York City; on the east side of New Haven it passes over the Quinnipiac River via the Pearl Harbor Memorial, or "Q Bridge", which often presents a major bottleneck to traffic. I-91, however, is relatively less congested, except at the intersection with I-95 during peak travel times.
The Oak Street Connector (Route 34) intersects I-91 at exit 1, just south of the I-95/I-91 interchange, and runs northwest for a few blocks as an expressway spur into downtown before emptying onto surface roads. The Wilbur Cross Parkway (Route 15) runs parallel to I-95 west of New Haven, turning northwards as it nears the city and then running northwards parallel to I-91 through the outer rim of New Haven, and Hamden, offering an alternative to the I-95/I-91 journey (restricted to non-commercial vehicles). Route 15 in New Haven is also the site of the only highway tunnel in the state (officially designated as Heroes' Tunnel), running through West Rock, home to West Rock Park and the Three Judges Cave.
In addition to these expressways, the city also has several major surface arteries. U.S. Route 1 (Columbus Avenue, Union Avenue, Water Street, Forbes Avenue) runs in an east-west direction south of downtown serving Union Station and leading out of the city to Milford, West Haven, East Haven and Branford. The main road from downtown heading northwest is Whalley Avenue (partly signed as Route 10 and Route 63) leading to Westville and Woodbridge. Heading north towards Hamden, there are two major thoroughfares, Dixwell Avenue and Whitney Avenue. To the northeast are Middletown Avenue (Route 17), which leads to the Montowese section of North Haven, and Foxon Boulevard (Route 80, which leads to the Foxon section of East Haven and to the town of North Branford. To the west is Route 34, which leads to the city of Derby. Other major intracity arteries are Ella Grasso Boulevard (Route 10) west of downtown, and College Street, Temple Street, Church Street, Elm Street, and Grove Street in the downtown area.
As a very dense, compact and relatively flat city with a significant downtown employment base, New Haven boasts one of the highest percentages of bicycling and walking (as a percentage of commute to work) of any major city in the United States. Neighborhoods close to downtown, in particular, have large numbers of nonmotorized commuters. The City has created a Bicycle Master Plan and in 2008, received Honorable Mention from the Bicycle Friendly Community awards program administered by the League of American Bicyclists, becoming the first town or city in Connecticut to be recognized through that program. The Farmington Canal and several bike lanes are examples of one major facility that has been created. Following several high-profile traffic-related fatalities in 2006, 2007 and 2008, many thousands of city residents, elected officials and community groups, including most of the city's Community Management Teams and ElmCityCycling, have become increasingly concerned about the state of traffic safety in the city [4], particularly that perceived to be limiting pedestrian and bicycle use, such as the ability of children to walk to school. The relative scarcity of bicycle and pedestrian funding at the state level is one major obstacle to improving the state of walking and cycling in New Haven and other Connecticut communities.
Tweed-New Haven Airport, located three miles (5 km) east of the city, provides daily service through US Airways.
New Haven Harbor is home to The Port of New Haven, a deep-water seaport with three berths capable of hosting vessels and barges as well as the facilities required to handle break-bulk cargo. The port has the capacity to load 200 trucks a day from the ground or via loading docks. Rail transportation access is available, with a private switch engine for yard movements and private siding for loading and unloading. There is approximately 400,000 square feet (40,000 m) of inside storage and 50 acres (200,000 m) of outside storage available at the site. Five shore cranes with a 250-ton capacity and 26 forklifts, each with a 26-ton capacity, are also available.
Electricity for New Haven is generated by 448 MW oil and gas-fired generating station located on the shore at New Haven Harbor. In addition, Pennsylvania Power and Light (PPL) Inc. operates a 220 MW peaking natural gas turbine plant in nearby Wallingford. Near New Haven there is the static inverter plant of the HVDC Cross Sound Cable.
The widening of I-95 promises to bring New Haven a new harbor crossing, in the form of an extradosed bridge; it shall replace the Q-bridge when completed, but delays have pushed the completion date beyond 2012. No work on the bridge structure itself has begun, though the I-95 improvement project as a whole is ongoing, with foundation and ramp work already well underway.
New Haven has seven sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International:
Some of these were selected because of historical connection — Freetown because of the Amistad trial. Others, such as Amalfi and Afula-Gilboa, reflect ethnic groups in New Haven.
In 1990, the United Nations named New Haven a "Peace Messenger City".