The fair place to meet is Columbus, OH — the city closest to the midpoint of Hartford and Memphis. From the farther side that’s about 11 hr 36 min of driving.
Recommended midpoint
Columbus, OH
From Hartford
11 hr 36 min
553 mi to Columbus
From Memphis
10 hr 41 min
509 mi to Columbus
Memphis has the shorter trip; the split is off by about 55 min. The alternatives below can even it out. Hartford and Memphis are about 1,043 miles apart.
Hartford and Memphis are about 1,043 miles apart by road. Split the difference and you arrive near Columbus, the city closest to the halfway point between them. That puts roughly 11 hr 36 min of driving on the Hartford side and 10 hr 41 min on the Memphis side — the fairest single meeting point among the cities near the middle.
Over this distance most people will fly rather than drive the whole way. Columbus still makes a fair, central place for Hartford and Memphis to converge, splitting the travel instead of asking one side to cross the country.
If Columbus doesn't have what you're after, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are also close to the midpoint and worth a look — each keeps the drive reasonably balanced between Hartford and Memphis.
Columbus is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a population of 905,748 at the 2020 census, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., second-most populous city in the Midwest, and third-most populous U.S. state capital. Read more →
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 at the 2020 census and was estimated at 124,006 in 2025. Read more →
Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Read more →
City descriptions adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA); photos via Wikimedia Commons, credited above.
Estimates use straight-line distance and typical road speeds; real drive times vary with route and traffic.