It begins on the Lechmere Canal behind the Cambridgeside Galleria mall, where the Henry Longfellow riverboat takes you into the Charles River locks and Charles River basin, past Charlestown and the North end's Mill Pond where the very knowledgeable docent Beth Charney begins her running narrative. The locks are also called the Gridley Locks, she explained, named after Col. Richard Gridley, George Washington's first army engineer, and they contain a fish ladder around the dam made in 1910. The Back Bay was once marshland, and now its 10,000 piles made from 45-foot tree trunks form the sea walls that protect that area.
This tour is just as interesting for Bostonians as it is for tourists here since locals don't usually see the locks and bridges and dams and buildings from the water, which gives a completely new, fresh viewpoint to everyone on board. The Paul Revere Park, for example, was made from funds given by the $14 billion Big Dig project, as was the beautiful Leonard Zakim bridge, which has diamond cutouts underneath it that allow the sunshine to stream down to the fish ladder so that the fish can tell night from the day on their migration. The sculptured plaques on the Longfellow Bridge, designed by architect Edmund Mark Wheelwright and called by locals the "Salt and Pepper Bridge" because its pillars look like condiment shakers, are better seen from a boat and are an homage to the Vikings. Likewise, the five stone symbols on the water side of the Museum of Science, are seen better from our riverboat than from the museum itself. They're dedicated to nature, mankind, industry, energy and space.
The new urban landscape paid for by mitigation from the Big Dig officially called the Central Artery Tunnel Project, now allows for a continuous pedestrian passage from the area of the Science Museum to North Point Park, to Charlestown, through Paul Revere Park to the Charles River Dam and the Charlestown Navy Yard.
The Nashua Street Park, affectionately called "Eggs" for its river rocks placed along the waterfront in front of it, was part of the "lost half-mile" of the West End of Boston, demolished in the 1950's for the now questionable "urban renewal" project there. The egg-shaped rocks were supposed to be a deterrent to the skateboarders, who have easily found a way to use them in their jumps and tricks, and have embraced them as part of their routines.
Floating by the Charlestown marina you can see the Bunker Hill Monument, the first odalisque structure in the United States. The spire of the Old North Church, said to be inspired by the British architect Christopher Wren, can be seen from the boat through a maze of newer taller buildings, but at one point, Charney said, it was the only thing that sailors coming into Boston could use as a navigation point -- the Old North GPS, as it were. The Custom House Tower she described as a "Renaissance Revival on a Greek Revival."
The rooftops of the relatively new Battery Wharf Hotel and residences are wavy in shape, as an homage to the waves on the sea, and the U.S. Coast Guard building was described as "Art Deco in transition" by the docent. The Suffolk County jail was designed by architect Hugh Stubbins, who was responsible for the design of many Boston buildings, including an addition to the Museum of Fine Arts and the John F. Kennedy Federal Reserve Bank Building. Stubbing reportedly said that the jail, with its triangular pediments, was an homage to the early American architect Charles Bulfinch who built many gorgeous classic New England structures, including the North End's historic St. Stephen's Church.
Long Wharf, next to the Aquarium, is the most historical wharf in Boston, and the hotel now there, the Long Wharf Marriott, was built to earthquake specifications, one of the few in Boston built that way. Nearby are the two Harbor Towers residences, the "unadorned concrete" structures designed by I.M. Pei to emulate Boston's many warehouses, but turned vertically rather than horizontally. Their so-called "zipper patios" are the little decks that look like horizontal zippers on a many-pocketed jacket. The U.S. Coast Guard building was called by Charney "Art Deco in transition," and the modern U.S. Federal Courthouse has one acre of glass windows along the waterfront. Nearby, the Institute of Contemporary Art building is "Post-Post Modern," according to the docent. The Hyatt Regency Hotel has an homage to New England lighthouses in its structure, and the Hotel Sonesta's step-down building is an homage to static Art Deco style.
There is so much architecture, history, beauty and Boston insider jokes on the architectural tour that if you want to catch everything, best to take a notebook or a tape recorder with you as well as your camera.
EmoticonEmoticon