Two springs in a row, the Connecticut River has kept this ferry tied up past its advertised opening day. The Rocky Hill–Glastonbury crossing is billed as an April-to-November service, but in 2025 high water held it until April 19, and in 2026 CTDOT opened its sister boat at Chester on April 1 and had to leave this one at the bank; the first crossing of the year went at 7 a.m. on Friday, May 1. Late September is the easy stretch. The river is low, the summer weekend lines have gone, and there are about two months left before the barge is moored for winter after November 30.
What runs is modest. The Hollister III, an open steel barge with room for three cars, is pushed across by the Cumberland, a diesel towboat tied alongside it. The Connecticut Department of Transportation owns and crews both, and the crossing is formally a piece of Route 160, which comes down Meadow Road in Rocky Hill, stops at the water and resumes on Ferry Lane in South Glastonbury. Nobody sells tickets on the bank; the deckhand collects on board.
CTDOT describes it as the oldest continuously operating ferry in the United States and gives 1655 as its starting date. The National Register nomination that made the landings and both riverside villages a historic district in 2005 makes the same claim, though it places the first boat a little earlier, soon after 1649, when Wethersfield voted to lay out roads on both sides of the river. Either way, it is older than the state that runs it.
Open hours instead of departures, weekday and weekend
Operating hours and season as published by CTDOT and read on September 24, 2026; the 2026 season opened May 1 and is scheduled to run through November 30 CTDOT — Rocky Hill-Glastonbury Ferry · 2026-09-24
Five dollars on a Tuesday, six on a Sunday, two on foot
You pay per crossing, on the barge, in cash or by check, and CTDOT asks for exact change. The alternative is the Token Transit app, where the agency is listed as CTferry: tickets bought there do not expire, but once you activate one it is valid for only ten minutes, so switch it on at the ramp rather than at home. A QR code posted at the landings leads to the same app.
A motorcycle pays the same as a car, an SUV or a pickup. Walkers and cyclists pay one flat fare whatever the day. The same tickets and the same prices are good on CTDOT's other river ferry at Chester–Hadlyme, which is why the book of twenty makes sense for anyone who uses both.
| Car, SUV, truck or motorcycle, weekdays | $ 5 |
| Car, SUV, truck or motorcycle, weekends | $ 6 |
| Book of 20 vehicle crossings | $ 60 |
| Pedestrian, any day | $ 2 |
| Cyclist, any day | $ 2 |
Fares as published by CTDOT and in the Token Transit app on September 24, 2026; unchanged since the 2014 season CTDOT — Rocky Hill-Glastonbury Ferry, tickets · 2026-09-24
Meadow Road in Rocky Hill, Ferry Lane in South Glastonbury
Both ramps are ends of the same state road rather than terminals. Neither bank has a ticket booth; the fare is taken on the barge.
Rocky Hill Ferry Landing
The west-bank ramp sits at the foot of Glastonbury Avenue, where Route 160 comes down Meadow Road into the old river port of Rocky Hill Landing. From Interstate 91 in either direction, CTDOT's directions are to take exit 23 (West Street) and follow the ferry signs to Route 160. Out of season the barge and the towboat are tied up here, moored to pilings, which is why this is the bank most people picture when they think of the crossing.
Over the winter of 2025–26 CTDOT paid for fencing, gates and lighting around the moored boats and for new sidewalks, ramps and benches on the Rocky Hill side, with work scheduled to finish in April 2026; the department has not announced that it is complete. It does not describe the parking either, although the federal ferry-terminal dataset records parking at both ramps.
Glastonbury Ferry Landing
On the east bank Route 160 arrives along Tryon Street and Ferry Lane, a stretch Connecticut designated a state scenic road in 1991, and ends at the Glastonbury landing, which a special act of the legislature made a State Historic Site. CTDOT publishes no street number for it; the ramp is simply where Ferry Lane meets the river.
The houses of the Hollister and Treat families, who ran boats here in the nineteenth century, stand in the same historic district as the ramp.
Route 160 across the Connecticut, below Hartford
The two ramps are a little over 900 feet apart, measured between the points in the federal ferry-terminal dataset, and the crossing runs almost due east from Rocky Hill to South Glastonbury. CTDOT publishes no crossing time for it.
The distance saved on the road is the real measure. CTDOT reckons drivers between southern Glastonbury and Rocky Hill save nearly 8 miles a trip. For cyclists the gap is starker: this is the only way over the river between Hartford and Middletown, and without it they face a barrier of more than 13 miles, because the Putnam Bridge on Route 2 does not allow bicycles. Every other New England crossing covered here is on salt water or a lake (the Charlotte–Essex boat across Lake Champlain is the lake one), and this is the river one.
Small things that decide a Route 160 crossing
- Flood stage closes it
When the Connecticut reaches flood stage the ferry stops until the water drops. Spring is when this happens most, which is why 2025 and 2026 both opened weeks late.
- CTroads carries the closures
CTDOT posts in-season closures on CTroads, where you can also set up a ferry alert by email or text. Check the entry named Rocky Hill - Glastonbury, not Chester-Hadlyme.
- Exact change, or activate at the ramp
Cash and checks are taken on board, with exact change preferred. A Token Transit ticket stays valid for only ten minutes once activated.
- The cyclists' river crossing
Between Hartford and Middletown this is the only way across for a bike, at $2. Allow for the shorter weekend hours if you are riding on a Saturday.
- Three cars a trip
The barge takes three vehicles at a time, so a line of six on a sunny weekend means waiting for the second or third turn.
- Dark on Thanksgiving and all winter
No service on November 26, 2026, and none from December 1 until the river lets CTDOT reopen in spring.
Poles, a horse treadmill, steam, and three and a half centuries of claims
For most of its history the ferry belonged to whoever held the town grant. A raft pushed with long poles did the work at first; in 1724 the General Assembly formally gave the right to Jonathan Smith and set the tolls, and the equipment stayed primitive until 1846, when one ferryman put a horse-powered treadmill on the deck of his scow. Steam followed. The towns paid a $1,000 bonus in 1866 to get a steam ferry running, and in 1876 a new boat called the Centennial took over and lasted until 1888, when Martin F. Hollister built The Hollister. A lawsuit ended with the state's highest court ruling that the ferry belonged to the towns, and Hollister gave up his right in 1893.
The railroad made the crossing matter more, not less. When the Connecticut Valley line reached Rocky Hill Landing in 1871, Glastonbury mills sent woolen cloth and ground feldspar over on the ferry to be shipped by train, well into the twentieth century. Rocky Hill and Glastonbury ran the boat jointly until the state took it over in 1915; a side-wheel steamer, the Nayaug, worked the river from 1903 to 1921. The present pair arrived in 1955, both designed by the Boston naval architect Walter McInnis, and both are listed as contributing objects of the historic district. In the 2025 season CTDOT's two river ferries together carried about 91,000 passengers and 42,000 vehicles.
A three-car barge and the towboat lashed to its side
What people want settled before the Rocky Hill ramp
Is the Rocky Hill ferry the one listed as closed at Chester?
No. CTDOT runs two Connecticut River ferries with the same hours and fares, and on September 23, 2026 CTroads listed the Chester–Hadlyme ferry as closed until further notice. The Rocky Hill–Glastonbury entry carried no closure notice at the same check. Look for the name before you turn around.
Is a Saturday crossing dearer than a weekday one?
$6.00 per crossing, against $5.00 on weekdays. A motorcycle pays the same as a car. If you cross often, a book of 20 vehicle crossings costs $60.00, or $3.00 a trip, and works on the Chester boat too.
When is the last day of the 2026 season?
CTDOT publishes the season as April 1 through November 30, which puts the last day on Monday, November 30, 2026. The ferry does not run on Thanksgiving, November 26. CTDOT had not yet issued its end-of-season notice when this page was checked.
Why was the 2026 opening pushed back to May?
Water. CTDOT planned to open both river ferries on April 1, 2026, but elevated levels at the Rocky Hill–Glastonbury ramps did not allow it, and service began at 7 a.m. on May 1. The same thing happened in 2025, when it opened on April 19.
Will the deckhand take a credit card?
CTDOT lists cash and checks on board, with exact change preferred. For a cashless crossing use the Token Transit app (agency name CTferry) and activate the ticket just before you board, because it is only valid for ten minutes after activation.
Which boat pushes the Hollister III across?
The Cumberland, a diesel towboat that rides alongside the Hollister III and pushes it from bank to bank. Both went into service in 1955. Before them came steam boats, and before those a horse on a treadmill, which the National Register nomination dates to 1846.
Is it really the oldest ferry in the country?
That is how CTDOT describes it, as the oldest continuously operating ferry in the United States, dating to 1655. The federal National Register nomination for the historic district says the same thing and dates the crossing to soon after 1649. No independent body has certified it as a record.