Connections North

Boston Neck Prior to the ambitious land-making endeavors of the nineteenth century, was a peninsula connected to the mainland by an isthmus, a narrow 40-yard wide strip of land, called the Boston Neck. Early maps illustrate that the road over the neck between Roxbury and Boston (current Washington Street) was the only existing way, other than by water, to travel to and from the town. Bad weather conditions or high tides would often lood the neck and cut of travel, turning Boston into an island. he “Great Ferry” Private individuals engaged in the business of ferrying passengers across the as a result of its limited access. The irst public ferry, the Charlestown Ferry, was not established until a meeting of the governing Massachusetts Court of Assistants in 1630.

1630 - Governor John Winthrop and the Court of Assistants, Deputy Governor of the Colony, with Mr. William Coddington, Sir Richard Saltonstall and others meet in Boston; and it was ordered: “That whoesoeuer shall irst giue in his name to Mr. Gounr that hee will vndertake to sett vpp a ferry betwixte Boston and Charlton, & shall begin the same att such tyme as Mr. Gounr shall appoynt, shall haue Id for euy pson, & Id for euy 100 waight of goods hee shall soe transport.”

1631 - Edward Converse, the irst man to take advantage of the act, establishes a ferry between Boston and Charlestown; the irst chartered public transportation in America. “Edw: Converse hath vndertaken to sett vpp a ferry betwixte Charlton & Boston, for which hee is to haue ijd for euy single pson, & 1d a peece if there be 2 or more.” Defraying the Cost of Indigent Scholars 1640 - Finding it diicult to secure a trustworthy ferryman the General Court ordered that the ferry privilege between Boston and Charlestown be granted to Harvard College for the inancial beneit of the institution.

The Harvard Corporation, managers of the Charlestown ferry, often petitioned the General Court against proposals to build bridges across the Charles River arguing that a bridge would decrease the ferry's revenue, while increasing visitors to Cambridge and consequently, "scholars will be in danger of being too much interrupted in their studies & hurt in their morals.”

Courtesy of the Archives

1646 - Harvard University begins operating the ferry. For one hundred and forty-ive years Harvard received consistent revenue from the ferry tolls.

1650 - Harvard College is granted the right to sell or lease the ferry.

he "Great Bridge" 1662- The "Great Bridge", the irst pile bridge of record in the colonies, connected Cambridge and Brighton near the cur- rent site of the Anderson Memorial Bridge near Harvard Stadium.

Courtesy of the Harvard University Archives

1739 - John Staniford proposes a bridge from West Boston to East Cambridge.

1761 - Samuel Sewall is credited with building the irst long wooden pile and beam bridge in America over the York River in Maine; 270 feet long, supported on 13 piers. He later designed the Charles River Bridge in 1886.

Courtesy Library of Congress Harvard Petitions the General Court 1713 - First oicial motion to replace the ferry with a bridge.

1720 - Proposal to build a bridge between Gees Ship Yard & Hudson's Point to Charlestown fails to gain appeal.

1738 - Proposal to start a ferry and to build a bridge from Boston to East Cambridge was denied by the General Court.

Courtesy Library of Congress

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