Looking out my window this morning at the light snowflakes falling and the dull colorless sky, I recalled Hartford's motto: post nubila phoebus. That is, "after clouds, the sun."
That thought prompted me to look up some other Hartford facts.
The name Hartford comes from the English town of Hertford, in Hertfordshire. Before English settlers gave it that name in 1637, the called it Newtown. But the Dutch were here before that, calling their settlement Fort Huys de Goede Hoop, or House of Hope. The area's Native Americans originally called the area Saukiog, meaning Black Earth. (The Saukiog tribe lived in what would become Hartford; modern East Hartford was then home to the Podunks.)
Hartford's population was 124,775 in the 2010 census. In 1950 it was 177,397. The city covers 18 square miles, 17.3 square miles of which is land.
Hartford's sister cities, according to Wikipedia, include Hertford, England; Bydgoszcz, Poland; and Thessaloniki, Greece.
Find more Hartford firsts (the Old State House is America's oldest state house), fun facts (the Bulkeley Bridge is the world's largest stone arch bridge), and not so fun facts (in 1647 Hartford charged, convicted, and executed the Colonies' first "witch"), on the City of Hartford's website.