Crossing the Peninsula

In Puritan and Colonial times, until land-filling started in 1796, Boston was a peninsula running north-south in Boston harbor.  It was surrounded on the west by the large estuary of the Charles River, “Back Bay” and on the east by the smaller estuary of the Neponset River, “Front Bay.”

“Crossing the Peninsula”, a distance of 9/10th of a mile, you will see Boston evolve over its almost 400 year history. Witness as the cows are banished from Boston Common; as the hills are “shorn of fifty or sixty feet” to build Charles Street and the North End; as Boston invents and secures its water supply; as graves and the subway are dug; as government and its buildings spring up; as smallpox is conquered and Boston becomes a medical center; and as the town is finally cleaned of 170 years of accumulated filth.