Charles River

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The Charles River from the Boston side, facing Weld Boathouse and the main campus of Harvard University in Cambridge.

This article is about the Massachusetts river. For the biomedical research company, see Charles River Laboratories, Inc..

The Charles River is a small, relatively short river in Massachusetts, USA, that separates Boston from Cambridge and Charlestown. It is fed by about 80 brooks and streams, and several major aquifers as it flows snakelike for 80 miles (129 km), starting at Echo Lake in Hopkinton, through 58 cities and towns in eastern Massachusetts before emptying into Boston Harbor. Its watershed contains 33 lakes and ponds. Despite the river's length and relatively large drainage area (308 square miles; 798 km²), its source is only 26 miles (42 km) from its mouth, and the river drops only 350 feet (107 m) from source to sea. It is the most densely populated river basin in New England.

Harvard University, Boston University, Brandeis University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are all located along the Charles River; at Boston proper it opens out into a broad basin and is lined by parks such as the Charles River Esplanade (in which stands the Hatch Shell, where concerts are given in summer evenings). The river is well known for its rowing, sculling, and sailing, both recreational and competitive. The Head of the Charles Regatta is held annually, in October.

1 Early history
2 Design
3 Pollution and remediation efforts
4 Athletic mile markers
5 In popular culture
6 River crossings (partial list)
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Early history

The river's name, preceding the English version, was once thought to be Quinobequin (meandering), though that attribution has been discredited by, among others, the Harvard University Librarian in 1850. The river was used by Native Americans for local transportation and fishing, and as part of the passage from southeastern Massachusetts to northern New England. Captain John Smith gave the river its current English name in honor of Charles I of England, the reigning monarch. Subsequent European settlers harnessed the river for industrialization, and by 1640 entrepreneurs on the Neponset River had diverted its water to power their mills.

Waltham was the site of the first factory in America, built by Francis Cabot Lowell in 1814, and by the 19th century, the Charles River was one of the most industrialized areas in the United States. Its hydropower soon fueled many mills and factories. By the century's end, 20 dams had been built across the river, mostly to generate power for industry. An 1875 government report listed 43 mills along the 9.5-mile (15 km) tidal estuary from Watertown Dam to Boston Harbor.

In portions of its length, the Charles drops slowly in elevation and has relatively little current. Despite this, early settlers in Dedham, Massachusetts, found a way to use the Charles to power mills. In 1639, the town dug a canal from the Charles to a nearby brook that drained to the Neponset River. By this action, a portion of the Charles's flow was diverted, providing enough current for several mills. The new canal and the brook together are now called Mother Brook. The canal is regarded as the first industrial canal in North America. Today it remains in use for flood control.

[edit] Design

A rainy day at the Charles River Esplanade, in Boston, Massachusetts.

A sunny day on the Charles River Esplanade.

Today's Charles River basin between Boston and Cambridge is almost entirely a work of human design. Its design was the work of noted landscape architects Charles Eliot and Arthur Shurcliff, both of whom had apprenticed with Frederick Law Olmsted, and by the architect and landscape architect Guy Lowell. This designed landscape now includes over 20 parks and natural areas along 19 miles (31 km) of shoreline, from the New Dam at the Charlestown Bridge to the dam near Watertown Square.

Eliot first envisioned today's river design in the 1890s, but major construction began only after his death with the damming of the river's mouth at today's Museum of Science, an effort led in by James Jackson Storrow. The new dam, completed in 1910, stabilized the water level from Boston to Watertown, eliminating the existing mud flats, and a narrow embankment was built between Leverett Circle and Charlesgate. After Storrow's death, his widow Mrs. James Jackson Storrow donated $1 million toward the creation of a more generously landscaped park along the Esplanade; it was dedicated in 1936 as the Storrow Memorial Embankment. This also enabled the construction of many public docks in the Charles River Basin, including the foundation of Community Boating Inc., the nation's first non-profit sailing club. In the 1950s a highway (Storrow Drive) was built along the edge of the Esplanade to connect Charles Circle with Soldiers Field Road, and the Esplanade was enlarged on the water side of the new highway.

[edit] Pollution and remediation efforts

Despite its famous water pollution, making the Charles "Swimmable by 2005" became an important EPA goal¹. While this promise was not reached in time, swimming and fishing are progressively re-emerging as about 90% of the length of the river is now considered safe for swimming². Health risks remain, however, particularly after rainstorms and when walking in certain riverbeds stirs up toxic sediment.^{[citation needed]}

During the period September 2004 to September 2006, the City of Cambridge and the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation introduced vegetation at Magazine Beach just west of the BU Bridge on the Cambridge side of the river. This introduced vegetation had significant trouble living there because it was not native to the Charles River. The vegetation installed created a wall preventing the reintroduction of swimming at Magazine Beach.

[edit] Athletic mile markers

The Charles is a popular running and biking path, and several runners including the MIT Women's Track Team gage their distance and speed by keeping track of the mileage between the bridges that run from the Museum of Science past the Harvard campus through map/charts such as this one: [1].

[edit] In popular culture

Looking towards Boston across the Charles in winter

The Charles River is an icon for Boston and is featured in the song Dirty Water by The Standells:

Down by the River...

Down by the banks of the River Charles

(Oh, that's what's happenin' baby)

That's where you'll find me

Along with lovers, muggers, and thieves.

(Ahh, but they're cool people)

Todd Rundgren's song Boat on the Charles from Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren is written from the point of view of someone contemplating suicide in the Charles because of an unrequited love.

In William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, the tormented Quentin character commits suicide by drowning himself in the Charles.

The 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind featured a prominent scene on the frozen river.

The 1994 film The River Wild opens with Meryl Streep rowing under the Watertown Bridge (Galen Street, Rt. 16) proceeding east past the Perkins School for the Blind Chapel tower and on to Boston.

In the novel The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, the protagonist, Esther, briefly considers committing suicide by jumping into the Charles off of a bridge.

In the short story El encuentro (The Meeting) by Jorge Luís Borges a mature Borges sits on the bank of the river Charles and comes faces to face with a younger version of himself. He determines that in the past he must have had the encounter during a dream and dismissed it as fantasy, though later accepting it as real.

[edit] River crossings (partial list)

The following bridges, tunnels, and dams cross (or crossed, if in italics) the river, in downstream to upstream order.

Charlestown Bridge (earlier bridge 1786) 1900
Warren Bridge (demolished 1962) 1828
Charlestown High Bridge (demolished 2004) 1956
Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge 2003
Leverett Circle Connector Bridge 1999
MBTA Orange Line Haymarket North Extension (tunnel) 1975
MBTA Commuter Rail Charles River Bridge 1931
Boston and Lowell Railroad Charles River Bridge (removed) 1835 (first movable railroad bridge in the United States [2])
MBTA Green Line Lechmere Viaduct 1912
Charles River Dam Bridge 1910
Charles River Dam 1978
Longfellow Bridge (built on site of West Boston Bridge of 1793; MBTA Red Line in median; built as the Cambridge Bridge, renamed for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1927) 1907
Harvard Bridge 1891 (longest bridge over the Charles, carrying Massachusetts Avenue; despite name, northern terminus is MIT, not Harvard)
Boston University Bridge (built as the Cottage Farm Bridge, renamed in 1949) 1928
Grand Junction Railroad bridge (crosses the river under the Boston University Bridge)

John W. Weeks Bridge

River Street Bridge 1926
Western Avenue Bridge 1924
John W. Weeks Bridge (the only pedestrian bridge across the basin, with a Harvard campus steam tunnel inside) 1926
Anderson Memorial Bridge (a memorial to Nicholas Longworth Anderson donated by his son Larz Anderson) 1912
Eliot Bridge (a memorial to Charles W. Eliot, Harvard president 1869–1909, and his son Charles Eliot, landscape architect for the Metropolitan Park Commission) 1950
Arsenal Street Bridge 1925
North Beacon Street Bridge (US 20) 1917
Watertown Bridge (Galen Street, Rt. 16) about 1907
Watertown Dam about 1634
Pedestrian bridge
Bridge Street, Newton/Watertown
Bemis Dam (breached 1944) 1821
Blue Heron Footbridge 2005
Farwell Street, Waltham
Bleachery Dam (originally Gore Paper Mill dam) 1794
Mary T. Early Footbridge (formerly Calvary Street Footbridge)
Boston & Maine Railroad trestle (abandoned)
Newton Street, Waltham (original built 1761)
Elm Street, Waltham
Boston & Maine Railroad trestle (abandoned)
Richard Landry Park footbridge 1978
Waltham Dam or Moody Street Dam (original Eden Vale dam built 1785) 1836
Moody Street, Waltham (original built 1846, rebuilt 1871, 1921) 1946
Gold Star Mothers Bridge, Prospect Street, Waltham (drawbridge 1882) 1889
Weston Aqueduct
Commonwealth Avenue, Newton / South Avenue, Weston (Rt. 30)(site of old Norumbega Bridge)
MetroWest Tunnel (aqueduct)
I-90/I-95 connector (original Mass Pike terminus until 1964)
Hultman Aqueduct
Massachusetts Turnpike Boston Extension (Interstate 90), Newton/Weston
I-90/I-95 connector
Footbridge from Riverside Rd., Newton to Recreation Rd., Weston (closed)
CSX/MBTA railroad bridge (Framingham/Worcester Line), impressive single-arch concrete span
Footbridge
I-95 offramp (northbound exits 23–25; originally Route 128 until 1964)
Interstate 95/Route 128, Newton/Weston
Concord Street, Newton / Park Road, Weston
Footbridge, Leo J. Martin Golf Club, Newton/Wellesley
Railroad bridge (abandoned)
Washington Street (Rt. 16), Newton/Wellesley
Finlay Dam
Cordingly Dam and Falls
Footbridge
Wales Street, Newton / Walnut Street, Wellesley
Cochituate Aqueduct 1848
Interstate 95/Route 128, Newton/Wellesley and at Dedham/Needham line
Boston-Worcester Turnpike (Rt. 9), Newton/Wellesley
Metropolitan Circular Dam
Echo Bridge/Sudbury Aqueduct 1876
Silk Mill Dam
Elliot Street, Newton / Central Avenue, Needham
Railroad bridge
Needham Street, Newton / Highland Avenue, Needham
Railroad bridge made footbridge
Route 109 (Bridge St.), at Dedham/Boston line
Route 109 (Bridge St.), Dedham
Ames St., Dedham
Route 135, West St., at Dedham/Needham line

[edit] See also

List of Massachusetts rivers

[edit] References

Inventing the Charles River, by Karl Haglund, MIT Press, 2003, in collaboration with the Charles River Conservancy.
Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston, by Nancy S. Seasholes, MIT Press, 2003.
Omeros, by Derek Walcott, Faber and Faber (London), 1990. (Repeated references to the Charles river in descriptions of Boston life.)