Wikipedia
The Hartford–Springfield metropolitan area is an urban region and surrounding suburban areas that encompasses both north-central Connecticut and the southern Connecticut River Valley in western Massachusetts; its major city centers are Springfield, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut.
The area is also sometimes called the Knowledge Corridor, initially employed as a 2012 rename ("New England's Knowledge Corridor") for the Hartford–Springfield Economic Partnership, an interstate cooperative venture to foster an economic, cultural, and civic partnership between the two major cities on the Connecticut River. The term Knowledge Corridor has gained a degree of currency, mostly with some government organizations as well as local businesses and universities using the name. The New Haven–Springfield Line and Conn River Line form the primary rail route through the region, and are sometimes themselves called the Knowledge Corridor in planning documents.
The Hartford–Springfield region is New England's most populous metropolitan area after Greater Boston, with approximately 1.9 million residents and 160,000 university students. The region also features "a dense concentration" of hospitals and over 29 universities and liberal arts colleges, including a large number of the United States' most prestigious higher-education institutions. The Knowledge Corridor includes surrounding cities such as Northampton and Amherst in the north, and New Britain and Middletown in the south.
Hartford and Springfield's urban cores lie only apart; however, their efforts to cooperate have long been hampered by state border issues, beginning with a lawsuit in 1638. Hartford's Bradley International Airport is the closest airport, which sits equidistant between them in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. The Hartford–Springfield Knowledge Corridor Partnership was formalized by regional civic, business, and education leaders in 2000 at the Big E in West Springfield.