USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Topographical and historical description of Boston > Part 32
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Suitable tolls were established, and the proprietors were to pay annually to Harvard College the sum of three hundred pounds during the term of forty years for de- fraying the expenses of indigent scholars. On the thirtieth of June, 1792, another act was passed by the legislature, establishing the term of continuance as a corporation to be seventy years, and reducing the amount to be paid to the college to two hundred pounds. After this various acts were passed in relation to the bridge, empowering the corporation to make and maintain canals, to change the appropriation to the college so that it could be applied for the support of two tutors, and for other purposes. The causeway leading to the bridge was commenced on the fifteenth of July, 1792, and the wood work was begun on the eighth of the following February. The way for travel was opened on the twenty-third of November, 1793, in the short space of seven and a half months from the time of driving the first pier. The sides of the causeway were laid with stones, and on each side was a canal about thirty feet in width. The wooden part of the bridge when built was about 3,483 feet in length, and was sup- ported by one hundred and eighty piers. The estimated cost of the structure, together with the causeway and canals, was about twenty-three thousand pounds, legal money; and the principal undertaker for the work was a Mr. Z. Whiting, who performed it under the superin- tendence of Messrs. Mungo Mackay and Henry Pren- tiss. The corporation of this bridge seems to have had much to contend with; for, in the year 1796, very great efforts were made to construct a bridge which should extend from Boston to Pierpont's Farm in Rox- bury, a project that entirely failed. Subsequently the
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Canal bridge, the Western avenue (or Mi.l-dam), and Warren bridge were built, to the great injury of the West Boston bridge; but the granting of the acts of incorporation to the proprietors of the Hancock Free bridge on the sixteenth of April, 1836, on the four- teenth of April, 1837, and on the twenty-sixth of March, 1846, completely discouraged the proprietors, and they were glad enough to sell out their franchise, and voted so to do on the twenty-fourth of June, 1846, to the Hancock Free Bridge Corporation, who by their act of 1846 were empowered to purchase the bridge, and also the Canal bridge, or to build a new one, from Allen street in Boston, to 'some convenient point in Cambridge, between the two bridges already built. Canal bridge was also bought by the same corporation, who of course did not build the new bridge; but on the thirtieth of January, 1858, the last toll was collected from the Cambridge bridges, and on the first of Feb- ruary a great demonstration of rejoicing at the freedom of the bridges was made by the city authorities and people of Cambridge.
The Canal Bridge Company, alluded to above, was incorporated on the twenty-seventh of February, 1807, and Cragie's bridge, 2,796 feet in length, extending from Barton's Point, at the northwesterly end of Lev- erett street, to Lechmere's Point at East Cambridge, was opened for passengers on Commencement Day, the thirtieth of August, 1809. The corporators named in the act were Messrs. John Coffin Jones, Loammi Baldwin, Aaron Dexter, Benjamin Weld, Joseph Coolidge, Jr., Benjamin Joy, Gorham Parsons, Jonathan Ingersol, John Beach, Abijah Cheever, William B. Hutchins, Stephen Howard and Andrew Cragie. The capital
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stock consisted of twelve hundred shares, and the bridge was to be built from the Almshouse fence in Boston to Barrell's Point in Charlestown. The term of continuance of the charter was seventy years. This bridge connects with Charlestown by means of Prison Point bridge, the length of which is 1,821 feet. The purchase of this bridge in July, 1846, for $60,000, and the West Boston bridge for $75,000, led to a termina- tion of tolls on the Boston bridges in 1858.
The company of the Boston South bridge was in- corporated on the sixth of March, 1804. The bridge when first erected was 1,551 feet in length, and was opened for the accommodation of the public on the first of October, 1805. It is now known as Dover street bridge, the name having been adopted by the City Council in 1857. The corporators under the act were Messrs. William Tudor, Gardiner Greene, Jonathan Mason and Harrison Gray Otis. The term of continu- ance was, as in the other bridge charters, seventy years, and the bridge was to be constructed from the town's land, at the southeasterly part of the town, to Dorchester Neck. At the same time the South Bridge Company was incorporated, two other important acts were passed by the legislature, one for the annexation of Dorchester Neck to Boston, and the other for the building of Front street (which took the name of Harrison avenue in 1841), extending from Essex street to Dover street. The cost of the bridge was about $56,000. At the time the question of this bridge was under consideration, va- rious plans were started; the one which seemed to be very much desired was to have led from South street, but this idea was defeated. When the petition for the bridge was presented to the General Court, there were
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only ten families on the peninsula comprising Dorches- ter Neck. On the nineteenth of April, 1832, all the franchise and materials of this bridge were conveyed to the city for the sum of three thousand five hundred dollars, and the bridge became a public highway.
The Western avenue, about a mile and a half long, was erected by the Boston and Roxbury Mill Corpora- tion, which received a charter for the purpose on the fourteenth of June, 1814; but the way was not opened for passengers until the second of July, 1821. A peti- tion for obtaining a charter for this great undertaking, signed by Isaac P. Davis and one hundred and forty- three others, was presented to the legislature in June, 1813. The subject was placed in charge of three emi- nent gentlemen as commissioners, who held sittings for public hearings, and who finally at the next meeting of the General Court recommended a plan for the erection of a dam which should extend westerly from the town to Sewall's Point in Brookline, giving a flowage of about four hundred and fifty acres. This was a change from the plan of the petitioners, who proposed a dam twenty- two hundred feet long, extending from the foot of Bea- con street to Gravelly Point in Roxbury, giving a flow- age of only two hundred and twenty acres. It was also proposed to cut a canal across the Neck for the passage of vessels, and another along the neck running to Rox- bury. In this project the towns in the immediate neigh- borhood of Boston felt great interest, some being very much opposed to it; while others, deeming it for their special interest, favored it strenuously. The act, as passed by the legislature, provided for a turnpike forty- two feet wide to Watertown, and another from a point on the Brookline marshes to the Worcester turnpike,
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near the Old Punch Bowl Tavern in Brookline. The capital stock was divided into 3,500 shares, of one hun- dred dollars each. The persons named in the act were Messrs. Isaac P. Davis, Uriah Cotting and William Brown; and Mr. Cotting was agent until his decease on the ninth of May, 1819, when he was succeeded by Lo- ammi Baldwin, Esq. The superintendent of the work was Mr. David Moody. George Bethune, Esq., was the treasurer of the corporation, and Samuel F. McCleary, the late City Clerk, was the clerk. The work pro- gressed in such a manner that in the fall of 1820 the water of Charles River was shut off, the way opened in July, 1821, and the road to Watertown completed in 1826. The stone material for building the dam was brought from Roxbury and Weymouth, the dirt from the flats, and a small portion at the Boston extremity of the avenue was supplied with dirt from Beacon Hill, then in process of being dug down. When the water was shut off from the Back Bay, the dirt became dry, and many persons who resided at the time at the South End can well remember the clouds of fine dust, almost like Tripoli powder, which took possession of every crevice of their houses. This dust became such a nuis- ance that a sluice-way was made the next season, and the flats overflowed with water. The various dams were used for economical purposes; grist mills and iron works were built, rope-walks were erected, and machine shops and manufactories set up. At the opening of the way for passengers, a parade was had, but not such as would be deemed proper at the present day. Gen. Wil- liam H. Sumner acted as Chief Marshal, and Major Dean and William Tileston were his aids. A large number of people in carriages, and a cavalcade of horsemen
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passed over the dam, on the signal fired by the South End Artillery under Captain Lobdell; and on their re- turn, a short address was made by the Chief Marshal to the persons present, who assembled around him for the purpose. On the fourth of June, 1868, an act was passed by the legislature, authorizing the city of Boston and the towns of Brookline, Brighton and Watertown, within one year, to lay out and accept as highways, so much of the Mill-dam road, and the roads and bridges heretofore connected therewith in toll franchise, excepting the road known as the Cross-dam, as lies within their respective limits; and on the third of the following November, the Mayor called the attention of the Board of Aldermen to this fact, and on the seventh of December, the portion of the road within the city limits was laid out and accepted as a highway of the city. On the next day the toll- house on the avenue was closed, and the Mill-dam be- came a public highway.
The Boston Free Bridge Corporation, consisting of Messrs. Nathaniel Whittemore, Noah Brooks, Cyrus Alger, William Wright, Adam Bent, David Henshaw, Jonathan Hunnewell, Francis J. Oliver, Samuel K. Wil- liams, Hall J. Howe, and their associates, had a charter granted on the fourth of March, 1826, a previous act passed twenty-fifth February, 1825, being repealed. The bridge to be built was to extend in a straight line from or near Sea street in Boston to the newly made land in South Boston, and nearly in the direction of Dorchester Turnpike; it was to be of the proper width, and to have a suitable draw. Great opposition was made to the es- tablishment of this bridge, but its enterprising under- takers succeeded. The bridge was bought by the city, by deed dated September 26, 1828, and was opened for
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travel late in the year. On the eleventh of May, 1857, the name of this bridge was changed to Federal street bridge. By an act passed on the twenty-fourth of April, 1869, the city was authorized to widen the bridge.
The Warren bridge, leading from Haverhill street to Charlestown square, 1,390 feet in length, was erected by a company incorporated on the eleventh of March, 1828, the corporators named in the act being Messrs. John Skinner, Isaac Warren, John Cofran, Nathaniel Austin, Ebenezer Breed and Nathan Tufts. The bridge was to extend over Charles River, from or near the wharf in Charlestown late the property of John Harris, Esq., to the newly made lands in Boston near the Mill Creek, and it was to be not less than forty-four feet wide, and to have a suitable draw. So rapid was the building of this bridge, that it was opened to the public on the twenty-fifth of December of the same year. In 1833 the control of the bridge was assumed by the State, and toll was taken in order to defray the expense of construction; and on the second of March, 1836, it was opened to the public. It was repaired by an act of the legislature passed on the seventeenth of March, 1841, and again put under toll and so continued until the first of December, 1843, when, together with Charles River bridge, it was again made free. After becoming free a second time, these bridges were a third time placed under toll, on the first of June, 1854, until the thirtieth of April, 1858, when they finally became free.
On the eighth of June, 1868, an act was passed, by which three commissioners were subsequently appointed, for widening the draws of the Charles River and Warren bridges, for putting the bridges in thorough repair, and
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
for assessing upon the cities of Boston and Charlestown the expense of repairing and maintaining them in future.
The Chelsea free bridge, 690 feet long, was con- structed across Chelsea Creek by a company incorpo- rated on the twenty-eighth of March, 1834. It extends from the northerly end of Chelsea street in East Boston to a point in Chelsea, formerly a part of the farm of the late Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff, who gave a road through his land for the benefit of free travel. The corporators named in the act were Messrs. Benjamin T. Reed, Amos Binney and John Henshaw. The bridge was opened for passengers in October, 1834. It was rebuilt in 1848, and on the eleventh of May, 1857, its name was changed to Chelsea street bridge. It is kept in repair by the cities of Boston and Chelsea.
The East Boston free bridge, now called Meridian street bridge, 1,515 feet long, was built by a company consisting of Messrs. Henry D. Gardiner, Morrill Cole, Watson G. Mayo, and others, who were incorporated on the fifteenth of May, 1855. It was purchased by the city and completed in December, 1856, and extends from the northwest part of East Boston to Pearl street in Chelsea.
The Chelsea Point bridge, 570 feet in length, was built by a company incorporated on the first of April, 1835, and was opened for travel in the fall of 1839. It crosses a wide creek which separates the easterly end of Breed's Island from Pulling Point in the town of Win- throp. The corporators were Messrs. Joseph Burrill, Joseph Belcher, and John W. Tewksbury. The city was authorized, by an act passed on the seventeenth of April, 1849, to purchase this bridge, and on the first of July, 1850, it was laid out as a highway.
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The Mount Washington avenue bridge was built under an act of the legislature passed the twenty-eighth of April, 1853, Messrs. Benjamin T. Reed, Deming Jar- ves, Eben Jones and others incorporators, and was com- pleted and accepted by the Board of Aldermen on the thirtieth of April, 1855, but was not opened to the pub- lic for some time afterwards. The bridge was not to ex- ceed seventy feet in width, and was to extend from some point between Foundry and Wales's wharves, across Fort Point Channel to the Harbor line, at South Bos- ton, as established in 1840.
Broadway Bridge, extending across Fort Point Chan- nel, at the place where Broadway, if continued in a straight line, or nearly a straight line, from South Boston to Boston proper, would cross the channel, was authorized by an act passed on the twenty-fifth of April, 1866. The proper resolves and order for the extension of Broadway from Federal street to Albany street were passed by the City Council and approved on the fourth of May, 1869. The Broadway Bridge was soon after put under contract, the award having been made to the Moseley Iron Building Works for the sum of $331,708.76, the work to be completed early in the year 1870.
An act was passed on the ninth of June, 1868, for the improvement of Boston Harbor, whereby the city was authorized to build and lay out as a public street, East- ern avenue, with a bridge over Fort Point Channel. This bridge will undoubtedly be built in proper time.
By an act of the legislature, passed on the eleventh of June, 1868, and repealed in 1869, the Maverick Bridge Company were authorized to erect a bridge over the water between the main land in the city of Boston and
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Fast Boston. This project was opposed by the general government, and consequently given up.
A pile bridge was also authorized to be built, not exceeding one hundred feet in width, from the westerly side of South Bay, at or near the southerly end of Pine Island wharf, so called, to the easterly side of said bay, and to be located in such a direction, that, if continued easterly, it would intersect Federal street at or near . Dorchester street. Acts for this purpose were passed on the seventeenth of March and twenty-second of June, 1869, and the bridge was required to be built and finished within five years of the passage of the act. When the necessity for this bridge becomes sufficiently imperative, it will undoubtedly be built.
Several other bridges extend from Boston, as parts of the railroads leading from the city, all of which are comparatively of recent construction, and require no special mention.
In this connection it may be well to mention that Malden Bridge, which connects Charlestown and Mal- den, was built by a company incorporated on the first of March, 1787. The work was commenced on the first of April, and the bridge opened for travel in September of the same year; and on the first of April, 1859, the tolls were taken off, and the bridge made a public high- way. Chelsea Bridge, connecting Charlestown and Chelsea, and Salem Turnpike, built under an act of incorporation granted on the sixth of March, 1802, be- came free on the ninth of November, 1869.
In the olden time, the other approaches to Boston were by means of the regular ferries from Charlestown and Winnisimmet (a portion of the town of Chelsea), and by an occasional ferry from Cambridge. Early
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attempts had been made, as before stated, for the con- struction of a bridge to Roxbury over the Back Bay; but these, like other similar ones for kindred objects, entirely failed, leaving Boston Neck as the only ap- proach to the town by foot and horse travel, until the year 1786, when Charles River bridge was opened.
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CHAPTER XXXIII.
BOSTON HARBOR AND ITS SURROUNDINGS AND ISLANDS.
Boundaries . .. Inner and Outer Harbors ... Outside the Light ... The Harbor Visited by Ancient Navigators ... Visit of the Plymouth Forefathers . . . De- scription in 1724 by Capt. Uring ... Point Allerton . . . The Brewsters . .. Hull ·· · Channels, Passages, Ledges, Rocks and Islands . . . Point Shirley. .. Pulling Point ... Chelsea, Winthrop, and North Chelsea, formerly Winni- simmet, Pulling Point and Rumney Marsh . . . Southern Boundary . . . Islands, formerly well wooded ... Forms of the Islands ... Channels, Shoals and Rocks.
BOSTON HARBOR includes that portion of Massachu- setts Bay which lies between Point Shirley on the north and Point Allerton on the south, and extends from the range of rocks and islands between these Points on the east to the peninsula on the west. It is usually spoken of as two harbors, separated by an imaginary line pass- ing north and south through Governor's Island, - the Inner Harbor comprising all the tide-waters west of this line, and the Outer Harbor all east of it bayward to the ocean. Sometimes a third division is alluded to, called "Outside the Light," which includes several shoals and sounds, and extends to the outermost rocks and ledges of the coast. When any vessel is said to be within the harbor, the inference is that it is within the bounds first above given. When persons talk of going " down the harbor," they do not expect to go beyond Boston Outer Light House; but when in extraordinary cases they do
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go beyond that structure, the expression is usually qual- ified by adding the words "and outside." Within its limits are generally included the several inlets which appertain to the towns around its margin, and which have acquired the names of bays and harbors, with the names of the contiguous towns attached.
In describing the harbor, notice must be taken of its roads, sounds, channels, islands, rocks, and spits. In- stead of parading these in a tabular statement in an alphabetical order, the plan will be pursued in these chapters that nature has already provided, and distinctly indicated. Therefore, after giving a cursory description of the harbor's surroundings, an attempt will be made to take the objects worthy of note in the order they are presented to any one leaving the easterly end of Long Wharf, on a voyage of survey and inspection. By pur- suing this course, the account will be more useful to those who may retrace the writer's steps, and much more intelligible to the reader, who may at home follow him in his wanderings by perusing his descriptions.
Perhaps, before entering into particulars, the writer may be allowed to go back to ancient times, and allude to some of the early visits to this harbor, which attracted the notice of navigators and others, who touched its shores long before Boston was selected as the site of the maritime capital of New England.
It is stated by historical writers, that more than eight hundred and sixty years ago the ancient Icelandic navi- gators, who had frequently visited the regions of Green- land and Labrador in their numerous voyages, explored the sea coast of America as far south as New Jersey. It has been believed that, on some of these adventurous occasions, they anchored near or within the harbor of
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Boston. One of these navigators in particular, Thor- wald, who made his voyages in the year 1003 and 1004, is supposed to have reached Cape Cod; and afterwards, following the coast in a circuitous course, to have dis- covered an abrupt promontory, well covered with trees, which he named Krossaness, and which archaeologists have supposed to be Point Allerton, the southerly head- land at the entrance of the harbor. These traditions, however, are extremely vague, and entirely unworthy of credence.
Other accounts, much more to be relied upon, tell of visits to the Massachusetts Bay by the Plymouth fore- fathers. On one of these memorable occasions, as Gov. Bradford has related, they sent out a party of ten men in their shallop, with proper attendants for interpreting, to visit the Massachusetts people, the aborigines of the soil. This was performed on the eighteenth and nine- teenth of September, 1621, just nine years before the settlement of Boston. The Governor states, that "they returned in saftie, and brought home a good quantity of beaver, and made reporte of ye place, wishing they had been ther seated; (but it seems ye Lord, who assignes to all men ye bounds of their habitations, had appointed it for another use.)" An account of this visit can be found in Mourt's Relation, written by one of the com- pany. Under date of the eighteenth of September, 1621, this account says: - "We set out about mid-night, the tyde then serueing for vs; we supposing it to be neerer then it is, thought to be there the next morning betimes; but it proved well neere twentie Leagues from New Ply- mouth. We came into the bottome of the Bay, but being late we anchored and lay in the shallop, not hauing seene any of the people. The next morning we put in for the
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shore. There we found many Lobsters that had beene gathered together by the Saluages, which we made ready vnder a cliffe." It further says, " Againe we crossed the Bay which is very large, and hath at lest fiftie Ilands in it, but the certaine number is not knowne to the Inhabitants." It closes with the following words: -" Within this Bay, the Saluages say, there are two Riuers; the one whereof we saw, having a faire en- trance, but we had no time to discover it. Better har- bours for shipping cannot be then here are. At the entrance of the Bay are many Rockes; and in all likeli- hood very good fishing ground. Many, yea, most of the Ilands have beene inhabited, some being cleered from end to end, but the people are all dead, or re- moued. Our victual growing scarce, the Winde fayre, and having a light Moone, we set out at evening, and through the goodnesse of God, came safely home before noone the day following."
In a volume of voyages and travels by Captain Na- thaniel Uring, an Englishman, made between the years 1697 and 1724, is the following brief description of the harbor, probably written just after his last visit to Bos- ton in April, 1721:
" Boston is the chief Town in the Province of Massa- chusetts Bay, it stands upon a Peninsula, at the Bottom of a Bay, which run in about eight Miles, and is fenced with Islands. Rocks, and Sands, which makes it a very secure Harbour; the Entrance into it is narrow, and some Shoals lie on the South Side: Some small rocky Islands, which are called the Brewsters, makes the North Side of it, on one of which Islands stands a Light House, to give Notice to Ships who may arrive
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
on that Coast in the Night, and be a Guide to them; where might be also built a Fortification, which would command the Mouth of that Harbour, when the Inhabi- tants think it proper; but at present their Fort stands upon an Island, two Miles and a Half below the Town; the Channel for Ships lies very near it, so that no Ships can pass by it but what the Fort is able to command: It is a strong, regular, well built Fort, mounted with about 100 Pieces of Cannon, where they keep a Gar- rison, who are paid by the Country."
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