USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Fifty years of Boston; a memorial volume issued in commemoration of the tercentenary of 1930; 1880-1930, Pt. 1 > Part 35
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The extension from Dudley street to Forest Hills, two and one-half miles in length, was opened in November, 1909, and reduced the running time between these two stations from sixteen minutes to eight minutes. The Everett exten- sion of slightly more than one mile was opened in March, 1919. Both addi- tions were built and are owned by the company. These two extensions fur- thered the purpose of the original structure and lessened by many minutes the time needed to reach Boston from points in Forest Hills, West Roxbury, Ros- lindale and Hyde Park, and from the northern section.
WASHINGTON STREET TUNNEL
The next important advance in rapid transit was the construction of the Washington Street Tunnel. This strip of tunnel, about a mile and a quarter in length, straightened the crooked spine of the Elevated system. It made possible the restoration of the Tremont Street Subway for the purpose for which it was originally constructed, namely, the operation of surface cars. The tunnel still further cut the running time from Dudley street to Sullivan square from twenty-one to eighteen and one-half minutes. It provided a straight course under the busiest street of the busiest section in New England. Because of its peculiar position, with its eight stations, four in either direction, the tunnel is in effect a great, elongated terminal. It became possible to operate six, seven or even eight car trains, increasing the capacity of the entire Elevated system by seventy per cent. The tunnel was completed and opened to the public November 30, 1908. It was built and is owned by the City of Boston and is leased to the Boston Elevated Railway.
CAMBRIDGE-DORCHESTER TUNNEL
The Elevated system provides a good means of rapid transit in a northerly and southerly direction. Let us consider now, for a few moments, the other main artery of the railway system, namely, the line known as the Cambridge- Dorchester Tunnel, which goes part way in an easterly and westerly, and part way in a northerly and southerly direction.
The Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel consists of a subway in Cambridge for 13,200 feet, a reservation in the middle of Cambridge Bridge for 1,950 feet, an elevated structure on the Boston side of the bridge for about 675 feet and a tunnel under Beacon Hill, the City Proper, Fort Point Channel and South Boston, to a point east of Andrew square, measuring about 15,230 feet; then the track is brought to the surface and continues over a former steam railroad right of way for a distance of about three and one-half miles to Ashmont Station. The total distance from Harvard square to Ashmont Station is nine miles. That part of the Cambridge tunnel in Cambridge and the structure on the
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Boston side of the bridge was built by the Railway Company from 1909 to 1912 and was sold to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at cost by legis- lative provision in 1918 .. It is leased to the Elevated Railway. The portion of the tunnel in Boston was built and is owned by the City of Boston and is leased to the railway. The section from Harvard square to Park street was opened on March 23, 1912; from Park street to Washington Station, April 4, 1915; from Washington to South Station, December 3, 1916; from South Station to Broadway, December 15, 1917; from Broadway to Andrew, June 29, 1918; from Andrew to Fields Corner on November 5, 1927, and from Fields Corner to Ashmont, September 1, 1928. The Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel connects with the Tremont Street Subway at Park street and with the main line Elevated at Washington street. It afforded a vast improvement in the transportation facilities of the entire district. Thousands of people were enabled to make a complete journey via the rapid transit. It brought many of the communities served by the district much nearer each other in point of time. Residents of these communities were given a ride on a fast-moving train instead of a slow- moving surface car on congested streets.
Simply as an example of time saving, the running time between Harvard square and Park street was reduced from twenty-five minutes to eight minutes. It may readily be appreciated what this and similar savings in time spread over a period of years mean to thousands of people riding every day.
Another important, although indirect, contribution from the construction of the Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel is the removal from the streets, in part, if not entirely, of many of the cars. This has left the streets inore open for the use of automobiles and other vehicles and has been a factor operating to defer expensive street widenings or the construction of new streets.
The latest contribution to the transportation system was the opening on December 21, 1929, of the so-called high speed trolley line from Ashmont Sta- tion, the southerly terminus of the Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel system, to Mattapan. This construction is on the surface over an old steam railroad right of way. It is free from traffic interference and there are only six stops between Ashmont and Mattapan. As traffic demands grow from the development of the cominunities served, this high speed trolley line can be converted into a system for trains and the train service extended from Ashmont to Mattapan. This last trolley line extension furnishes an excellent service in the communities located to the south of Boston. From Mattapan to the center of Boston the running time is now twenty-six minutes, which has meant a saving of nine minutes each way in getting from Mattapan to the center of Boston. This piece of construction, the last link in the Dorchester extension of the Cambridge Tunnel, was built and is owned by the City of Boston, and is leased to the railway ..
EAST BOSTON TUNNEL
I have discussed in some detail the two main stems of the railway system. There are, however, several other important transit facilities which connect at one or more points with these two main stems and form part of the network of rapid transit lines. The East Boston Tunnel, running in part under Boston harbor, extends from Maverick square, East Boston, to Bowdoin square. This
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strip of tunnel is about two miles long. The section between Maverick square and Scollay square was completed and opened to the public on December 30, 1904, and the section from Scollay square to Bowdoin square was opened on March 18, 1916. The tunnel was built and is owned by the City of Boston and is leased to the railway. This tunnel was used by surface cars until April 21, 1924, when it was converted into a third rail train system. When built for street car operation, this was believed to be the first structure ever built under tidewater for street cars. Maverick square is only one and one half miles from the Old State House, and yet before the tunnel was built thirty minutes was consumed in traveling this distance. When the cars were operated in the tunnel, this running time was reduced to five and one half minutes. With the substitution of train service the time was further reduced to four minutes. From no other section can people reach a downtown destination so quickly. The tunnel connects directly with the Atlantic Avenue Elevated, with the Washington Street Tunnel and with the Tremont Street Subway. Moreover, from the Washington Street Tunnel, connections may be made with the Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel, and from the Tremont Street Subway with the Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel and the Boylston Street Subway.
EAST CAMBRIDGE VIADUCT
The East Cambridge Viaduct extends from Lechmere square, East Cam- bridge, through the West End of Boston to the North Station, where it con- nects with the elevated and subway system. It was opened to the public on June 1, 1912. It was built and is owned by the Railway Company. It is about one and one-fifth miles in length and it crosses the Charles river on an ornamental concrete viaduct about 1,700 feet long, near the middle of which is a bascule drawbridge which is electrically operated. This extension helped to relieve some of the most congested streets in the center of Boston. It pro- vided better transportation for parts of both Somerville and Cambridge, reduced by about two thirds the running time from Lechmere square and enabled many residents of Somerville to reach the business center of Boston five minutes sooner than by the main line Elevated from Sullivan square. The Viaduct makes connection at North Station with the Atlantic Avenue Elevated, the Everett-Forest Hills Elevated, and the Tremont Street Subway, from any one of which a transfer may be made to the Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel.
BOYLSTON STREET SUBWAY
The Boylston Street Subway extends from Kenmore Station to the Tre- mont Street Subway, connecting directly with it under Charles street. It is used for trolley car operation. It was opened to the public on October 3, 1914. Arlington Station in this subway was built later and was opened November 13, 1921. The length of the subway is about one and one half miles. The Boylston Street Subway saved ten minutes in running time for almost all the residents of Brighton, Allston and Brookline and for many of the residents of Newton and Watertown. Incidentally, this subway was a great step in reliev- ing traffic congestion on Boylston street. The Boylston Street Subway is really a continuation of the Tremont Street Subway in a westerly direction beyond Charles street. By reason of this connection with the Tremont Street
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RAPID TRANSIT
Subway riders have a direct transfer at Park street to the Cambridge- Dorchester Tunnel, at Scollay square to the East Boston Tunnel and at North Station to the main line Elevated and the Atlantic Avenue Elevated. More- over, by transferring at Park street to the Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel and riding one station beyond Park street, passengers have a direct connection with the Washington Street Tunnel.
GOVERNOR SQUARE EXTENSION
At the present time the Boylston Street Subway is being extended under Kenmore square beneath Commonwealth avenue to Blandford street and beneath Beacon street to Carleton street. This extension is primarily for the purpose of relieving traffic congestion at Kenmore square. As the need develops in the future, however, the extended branches of the Boylston Street Subway can be prolonged under either Commonwealth avenue or Beacon street to points beyond those now authorized. This extension now in process of con- struction by the City of Boston will be owned by the city and leased to the railway.
COST OF RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM
It might be well to show at this point the public and private investment in rapid transit facilities, as of September 20, 1930.
The following subways and tunnels were constructed by the City of Boston, are owned by it, and leased to the Boston Elevated Railway:
TUNNEL OR SUBWAY
. Cost
Annual Carrying Charges
Tremont Street Subway
$4,402,958 25
$198,133 13
East Boston Tunnel ...
9,540,885 66
429,339 85
Washington Street Tunnel,
7,946,608 35
357,597 38
Boylston Street Subway.
6,510,886 49
292,989 89
Cambridge Connection.
1,652,371 93
S0,553 13
Dorchester Tunnel.
12,193,879 98
548,724 60
Dorchester Rapid Transit Extension.
10,751,473 24
483,816 30
UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
$52,999,063 90
$2,391,154 28
Governor Square Extension (estimate)
$4,935,000 00
$222,075 00
The following section of tunnel was constructed by the Boston Elevated Railway, sold to the Commonwealth in 1918, and leased to the Boston Elevated Railway:
Cambridge Tunnel (with structure on Boston side of bridge) .. $7,964,000 00 Cost.
Annual Carrying Charges.
$398,093 34
Elevated.
Cost. $25,846,627 62 4,310,488 20
East Cambridge Viaduct.
$30,157,115 82
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The following rapid transit lines were constructed by the Boston Elevated Railway and are owned by it:
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PLANS IN THE MAKING
I have discussed at some length the existing rapid transit facilities in Metropolitan Boston. There is no question but that the development over a period of years has shown a high degree of foresight and planning. The rapid transit lines form the backbone of the transportation facilities and it is almost impossible to imagine what conditions would be in Boston today if these main lines radiating north and south and east and west had not been built. It is safe to say that Boston would be a much smaller and more provincial city and that the other cities and the towns in the distriet would not have developed to their present importance. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of people have had the benefit of living away from the relatively crowded and unhealthy seetions.
We cannot, however, stop where we are. Improvements are much needed in certain sections of the transportation district. Plans are now in the making for the development of two new routes, using, in part, seetions of the existing rapid transit system. The present plans call for improvements substantially as follows:
Route No. 1, to begin at or near the junction of South Huntington and Huntington avenues and follow the general line of Huntington avenue to Stuart street, thence along Stuart street and Columbus avenue and under the Common to a new station to be constructed near the present Park street station, thenee under Beacon Hill to a connection with the East Boston Tunnel at Bowdoin square, thence via the present East Boston Tunnel to Maverick square and thenee by new construction to a terminal at or near Day square, East Boston, with provision for a future connection with the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad.
Route No. 2, to begin in the Brighton section of the city, west of Harvard avenue, and in general follow the line of Commonwealth avenue to Kenmore square, thence via the present Boylston Street and Tremont Street Subways to a point on Canal street near the North Station, thence via the present elevated structure and the Viaduct to Lechmere square, and thenee by new construction along the general line of the Boston and Maine Railroad through Winter Hill and Davis square to a terminal in North Cambridge or Arlington.
The cost of route No. 1, when completed, is estimated at $23,400,000 and that of route No. 2 at $17,000,000, making a total of $40,400,000. The present sentiment is that the two routes should be constructed in their entirety but that the construction be spread over several years. These routes would be operated with third rail trains and would greatly improve the service to the Huntington avenue, Jamaica Plain and Brookline sections, the Commonwealth avenue, Brighton and Newton sections, the Somerville, North Cambridge and Medford sections, and East Boston and the section to the north. At some future time it would be desirable to extend the rapid transit service from Forest Hills southerly to the West Roxbury district and to extend the service from Everett northerly to Malden. The most pressing needs, however, should be taken care of by the construction of the two routes described.
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We are now in possession of a system of transportation which compares favorably with the best in the country. Completion of these proposed exten- sions would provide Greater Boston with a system of transportation unlikely to be surpassed.
Another improvement for which plans are in the making is the construction of a station on the Cambridge-Dorchester Tunnel at Charles street: This station would be of value to the many thousands of persons going to the Massa- chusetts General Hospital, which is nearby. It would also help improve the transportation facilities of the residents of the Beacon Hill district.
TREND IN TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES
It would be foolhardy for anybody to attempt to picture the transportation system of the metropolitan district far in the future. Who could have forecast in 1880 the changes and improvements which have taken place since? One does not need to be a prophet, however, to say that the future development will be in the direction of additional underground transit facilities in which rapid transit trains are used. Traffic congestion on the streets, interfering as it does with trolley operation, and the desire of the public for speedier trans- portation can be met only by extending that type of service which in the past has demonstrated its worth in satisfying the public and holding its patronage.
Twenty thousand passengers a day are now using the high speed service between Mattapan and Ashmont, which is far more than it was anticipated would use this service so soon after its opening. Forty thousand more passen- gers are using the Dorchester Tunnel daily than did so before the extension beyond Andrew square. In fact, at present, 90,000 passengers are using the Dorchester extension daily to some point beyond its previous terminus. No better indication of the public's response to rapid transit facilities can be found . than in the liberal use of such facilities immediately after they are provided.
A word now as to the way buses will figure in the transportation picture of the future. The Elevated early recognized the value of the bus as an adjunct to street car and rapid transit lines. Today the Elevated is operating 364 buses, and twelve and one half per cent of its total revenue car miles and almost twenty-two per cent of its surface mileage is represented by this form of transportation. The service rendered by bus lines is in large part in substitu- tion for service formerly rendered by street cars in outlying sections. The bus is also useful in sparsely populated sections and in streets too heavily congested for street car operation. In my opinion, the use of buses will increase. In view, however, of the limited number of passengers which can be carried in a bus, it cannot be expected that buses will ever render more than auxiliary service to the backbone of our transportation system, which must be its rapid transit lines.
EDITORIAL NOTE
Two matters that were pending when Mr. Harriman wrote his article have since been decided by action of the Legislature. The new station at Charles and Cambridge streets has been authorized and is now in use, having been constructed by the Massachusetts Depart-
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
ment of Public Utilities and opened on February 27, 1932; and the "public management and operation of the Boston Elevated Railway Company," provided for in 1918, has been con- tinued definitely until July 1, 1959. The terms of the arrangement, however, have been modified in important respects. A summary of the more important changes, kindly provided by Mr. Harriman, follows:
"Since this article was written, the Legislature passed an Act, approved May 19, 1931, under which public control of the Elevated was extended for a period of twenty-eight years beginning July 1, 1931, and ending June 30, 1959. This Act provided that funds for the retirement of all classes of preferred stock should be obtained by the issuance of bonds and notes of the Metropolitan Transit District, and reduced the rate of dividend on the common stock from six per cent to five per cent. The savings effected by the lower dividend rate on the common stock and the retirement of the preferred stocks and through a reduction in taxes was estimated to amount to about a million dollars annually. A special trust fund, originally established for retirement of the second preferred stock, was made available for paying the balance of $1,349,333.35 remaining due the cities and towns served by the Elevated as the result of a deficit assessed upon them in 1919.
"This Act extending public control provides that if a deficit occurs, the Metropolitan Transit Council, consisting of the Mayors and chairmen of the Boards of Selectmen of all cities and towns of the Transit District, may determine whether it is in the public interest to raise fares to prevent a further deficit or to maintain the rate of fares then in effect.
"The Act also reduces by a very substantial sum, as compared with the 1918 purchase option, the amount which would be required for the Commonwealth or any political sub- division thereof to exercise the option to purchase the railway."
THE HARBOR AND SHIPPING OF BOSTON, 1880=1930
By GEORGE CASPAR HOMANS
There is not much romance about glacial sand heaps at the mouths of insignificant creeks at the head of a bay. Boston has the sweep of no river, the majesty of no mountains to make a famous harbor. Yet it is the peculiar quality of New England to bring strength and sometimes beauty out of home- liness. In the last fifty years Boston has brought out of her mud flats a modern harbor, but at the same time she has lost almost all the Boston-owned shipping that gave the harbor character and fame. It is a half-century of beginnings and endings, of gain and loss.
The study of maps, even in these days when they are no longer garnished with sea serpents and mermaidens, is always fascinating. On the map Boston's geographical advantages seem great and a great deal too much has been said about them. Look at her - shoved off in a corner between Canada and the rest of America. True, she is nearer Europe, and, strangely, South America, than other American North Atlantic ports, but it is only by a negligible mile- age, and she is correspondingly farther from the Mississippi Valley, which produces the export cargoes. Her advantage is on the wrong half of the route, for water transportation is much cheaper than land transportation. Even then the handicap is greater than it should be, for while the North Atlantic Steamship Conference can quote equal ocean rates to Europe from all ports on this coast, yet thie Interstate Commerce Commission, in fixing the railroad rates from behind the Alleghanies to the Coast, traditionally gives Baltimore, Norfolk and other southern ports an arbitrary differential aid larger than the cost of transportation and the shorter haul warrant. Boston loses her advan- tage by sea; Baltimore keeps hers by land; and, until some favorable change is made in the present rate structure, the improvements of the last fifty years in Boston harbor are utterly of no avail. Furthermore, though the citizens of Boston were great railroad builders in the Far West, they lacked the foresight to secure a Boston-owned trunk line through the Middle West to Chicago. Just before 1880 they pierced the Berkshire barrier with the Hoosac Tunnel, but that was largely an extravagant gesture, since at the same time no rail- road was created the sole interest of which was to bring long-distance freight to Boston. She must take the left-overs.
Suppose we are coming up the bay to Boston Harbor. The "rock-bound" coast is dangerous, but uninterestingly low - ledges alternating with beaches, hidden in haze or fog. We raise Minot's Light, its dark torso standing out of the sea, then the chubby red lightship, which first went on watch in 1895, then pick up our pilot from either the straight-stemmed schooner "Liberty," or the more modern spoon-bow knockabout "Pilot," Burgess-designed, which take turns on station, drifting in circles or riding out the gales.
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
Now that we have taken our pilot we can go in, not neglecting to get from time to time a good "fix" on the chart. Looking through the two ocean gateways, guarded by Graves and Boston Lights, Boston Harbor seems to have been laid out on two axes, northeast and northwest, as if to face the two great winds that curse her in winter. The northeast axis, running from the Graves to Quincy bay, is the more symmetrical and, artistically, the city should have been established at Quincy at the head of the vista. After the rocky outworks of the Brewsters, Lovell's Island takes the shock of the sea, bolstered by Gallop's and George's and flanked to the north by Point Shirley and Deer Island, to the south by Point Allerton and Hull. Behind this rampart come Long and Peddock's Islands, with little Rainsford between, and Squantuni and Hough's Neck carry out the balance.
Boston, however, was not placed symmetrically. She was tucked in under the hills to the northward, and the northwest axis from the Brewsters to Beacon Hill was, until lately, all-important. Here ran the channel, deep but tortuous, up which the homeward bound Northwestmen or East Indiamen had to beat, heavy with long voyaging. First the tall white shaft of Boston Light, oldest lighthouse in America, which figures lovingly in the corners of so many Boston ship-portraits. Then a turn opposite forbidding Fort Warren and off the shoals on which the spider-like "Bug" light squatted until it was burned down a few years ago. Then a shoot through the Narrows between the bluffs of Lovell's and Gallop's Islands in the brown froth of the tide. Then a turn back to the westward at Nix's Mate, where the ghosts of the pirates still hang in chains, and at last the old channel empties into President Roads, with the Hill in sight.
Interesting as the Narrows channel is, practically it has not much to say for itself. Dredged to a depth of twenty-seven and a width of a thousand feet between 1867 and 1892, it has about reached its limits in both directions. The Broad Sound channel on the northeast axis, running from northward of the Graves to President Roads, was originally much shallower than the Nar- rows, for several shoals made out from Deer Island with only seventeen feet over them at mean low water. It was, however, "Broad" instead of "Narrow," and it was the logical approach to Boston for shipping from Europe. Broad Sound is divided into a north and south channel. Though the south channel was the first attacked and was dredged by the United States Army Engineers to a depth of thirty feet and a width of twelve hundred between 1892 and 1905, it is the thirty by fifteen hundred foot cut in the north channel, completed 1902-16, together with a twelve hundred foot passage of the same depth, undertaken at the time, from President Roads to the docks, which constitutes the present Boston main ship channel, the deepest and shortest entrance to any American port. Moreover, on the eastern side of this channel, further dredging to a depth of forty feet and a width of nine hundred was authorized by Congress in 1917, and work on it was begun in August, 1930. It is hard work in Broad Sound. Any sort of bottom may be met - hard pan, sand or mud - and the bucket dredge instead of the easier suction dredge must be used. To go along with the Broad Sound development, the tall gray Graves Lighit was lifted, 1903-05, on the ledge of the same sinister name,
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