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27-465: The Boston Neck or Roxbury Neck was a narrow strip of land connecting the then-peninsular city of Boston to the mainland city of Roxbury (now a neighborhood of Boston). The surrounding area was gradually filled in as the city of Boston expanded in population (see History of Boston ). The land formerly composing the neck is part of the neighborhood now known as the South End . The Boston Neck

54-493: A handful of British regulars and two hundred Colonial volunteers. The Colonials approached to within a few hundred yards of the guardhouse through the marshes on either side of the neck with two artillery pieces, while a small detachment of six men circled behind the guardhouse. On a signal from the forward detachment, the two cannons fired into the house. When the guards ran out, the Colonials fired on them from their positions in

81-629: A particularly advantageous shortcut for marine transport. For example: Washington Street Elevated The Washington Street Elevated was an elevated segment of Boston's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority subway system, comprising the southern stretch of the Orange Line . It ran from Chinatown through the South End and Roxbury , ending in Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain , Boston . The initial section of

108-509: Is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar , and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmus, a narrow stretch of sea between two landmasses that connects two larger bodies of water. Isthmus and land bridge are related terms, with isthmus having a broader meaning. A land bridge is an isthmus connecting Earth's major land masses. The term land bridge is usually used in biogeology to describe land connections that used to exist between continents at various times and were important for

135-453: The Orange Line (which inherited the old name of the street) was relocated and the elevated tracks and stations were torn down shortly after the El's April 1987 closure. The Dover Street station was located at the site of the old town gate at the intersection of Dover and Washington Street. Dover Street was renamed East Berkeley Street sometime after the subway station was demolished. Today, at

162-898: The Tremont Street subway to connect with the Green Line at Boylston station . However, the Phase III tunnel and continued bus service was recommended instead. The closing of the Washington Street Elevated prompted a 2012 review, the Roxbury-Dorchester-Mattapan Transit Needs Study . It recommended, as a long-term project, the light rail conversion of the Silver Line's Washington Street section (between Dudley Square and Downtown Crossing) and its connection to

189-582: The 1830s, the Charles River tidal flats were filled in with train loads of gravel from the Needham area. This created the present Back Bay section of Boston. The remains of the fortifications at the town gate were still visible in 1822. On July 6, 1824 , this section of Orange Street where the town gate once stood was renamed Washington Street. The Washington Street Elevated (the “El”) ran subway trains above Washington Street from 1901 until 1987 when

216-467: The 49, but nevertheless fails to sufficiently decrease travel times as compared to the previous conventional bus service. The 2003 Program for Mass Transportation considered the possibility of converting the Washington Street section of the Silver Line to light rail, as had originally been promised, by using the abandoned Pleasant Street incline and the currently-unused southern segment of

243-541: The British expedition to capture them and to seize the powder in Concord . Dawes, a 30-year-old Boston tanner, was well known to the British sentries at the town gate on Boston Neck and was able to pass through the checkpoint that evening despite a lockdown . Dawes traveled a southern route by land while Revere took the northern route. Dr. Warren sent both men, reckoning that at least one of them would surely be able to evade

270-762: The British patrols. Dawes left about 10 P.M. and rode 17 miles (27 km) in three hours. He met with Revere shortly before 1 A.M. at the Hancock-Clarke House in Lexington , in the early morning of April 19, 1775, hours before the Battles of Lexington and Concord initiated the American Revolution . On July 8, 1775, during the Siege of Boston , the Neck was the site of a small engagement between

297-677: The Charlestown Elevated was replaced with the largely surface-level Haymarket North Extension in 1975. By the 1980s, however, the elevated was showing its age. The steel uprights had lost a substantial portion of their mass to rusting, though it was not structurally unsound since it was heavily overbuilt, and a $ 3 million repainting in 1975 stopped further oxidation. However, the stations were less solidly constructed, and with their narrow steel stairways and wooden platforms they would have required substantial renovations for continued usage and handicapped accessibility. Additionally,

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324-532: The Green Line via the abandoned tunnel, with a northern terminus at Government Center ; with the additional possibility of extending south along Blue Hill Avenue to Mattapan station (and thus connecting with the Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line , and, indirectly, with the Red Line ), following the route currently taken by the #28 bus. The Washington Street Elevated consisted of six stations,

351-813: The Main Line Elevated opened on June 10, 1901, running from Sullivan Square in Charlestown over the Charlestown Elevated , through the Canal Street incline into the Tremont Street subway , and out the Pleasant Street portal onto the Washington Street Elevated. The initial section of the elevated ran only to Dudley Square (now known as Nubian Square), with intermediate stations at Dover and Northampton. The Atlantic Avenue Elevated opened on August 22 of that year, joining

378-535: The Southwest Corridor was located somewhat further to the west than the elevated had been, away from neighborhood centers like Dudley and Egleston Squares, the MBTA promised that a branch of the light rail Green Line would be built to provide continued rapid transit service to those areas. However, such service was not forthcoming; instead, the 49 Northampton – Washington & Kneeland feeder bus route

405-762: The Washington Street El at Tower D Junction. The El, Boston's first heavy rail metro line, proved extremely popular. The Washington Street Tunnel was opened on November 30, 1908, providing a separate route for the Main Line and allowing use of the Tremont Street subway for through streetcars. The southern portal of the tunnel connected with the elevated at Tower D. The elevated was extended south to Forest Hills on November 22, 1909, with an intermediate station at Egleston to transfer passengers from streetcars serving Roxbury and Dorchester. Although

432-501: The corridor had been proposed as a branch of the predecessor BERy 's streetcar network in 1926, and as a relocation of the Orange Line since 1966. The last service over the Washington Street Elevated ran on April 30, 1987; service began over the Southwest Corridor route on May 4. The elevated was removed soon after; some of the steel was later used for a new bridge carrying Arizona Route 188 over Theodore Roosevelt Lake . Since

459-416: The elevated was built primarily to replace radial streetcar lines running to downtown, ridership from the areas surrounding the stations proved high, and an infill station at Green Street with fewer streetcar connections was opened on September 22, 1912. The Washington Street Elevated was the last elevated section of the Orange Line to remain standing. The Atlantic Avenue Elevated ended service in 1938, while

486-481: The elevated was unpopular with many residents since it was noisy and deprived much of Washington Street of sunlight. From 1979 to 1987, the four-track railroad embankment between Back Bay and Forest Hills, originally acquired for a cancelled highway project , was converted to a trench with three mainline tracks and two rapid transit tracks as the Southwest Corridor project. Addition of rapid transit to

513-578: The intersection of East Berkeley and Washington Streets, nothing of the town gate or the fortifications remains, with the MBTA Silver Line's East Berkeley bus rapid transit station replacing the old Orange Line's Dover elevated station at that location. Isthmus An isthmus ( / ˈ ɪ s m ə s , ˈ ɪ s θ m ə s / ; pl. : isthmuses or isthmi ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo

540-427: The marshes, wounding some and forcing them to retreat toward Boston. The detachment then burned the guardhouse and another structure and captured two muskets and a few other weapons. It is not known whether any of the British soldiers were killed, but no Colonials were killed or wounded. The residents started adding fill along the neck in the late 18th century because the low-lying area was prone to erosion. Beginning in

567-796: The migration of people and various species of animals and plants, e.g. Beringia and Doggerland . An isthmus is a land connection between two bigger landmasses, while a peninsula is rather a land protrusion that is connected to a bigger landmass on one side only and surrounded by water on all other sides. Technically, an isthmus can have canals running from coast to coast (e.g. the Panama Canal ), and thus resemble two peninsulas; however, canals are artificial features distinguished from straits . The world's major isthmuses include: Of historic importance were: The cities of Auckland , Madison , Manila , and Seattle are located on isthmuses. Canals are often built across isthmuses, where they may be

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594-399: The most complex and major of which were at Dudley Square and Forest Hills. Most of the original stations were designed by architect Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow Jr. , and originally featured much in the way of ornamentation and architectural prowess. By the time the "El" closed, however, much of this detail had been lost to decades of decay, neglect, and cost-cutting. Forest Hills Station

621-575: The old fortifications of brick, stone and earth with timber and additional earth. Gage ordered a ditch to be dug in front of the fortifications, that would fill with salt water during high tides, effectively cutting Boston off from the mainland. The neck had soft mud on both sides at low tide, making it very difficult to enter Boston on foot except through the town gate. On the night of April 18, 1775, Patriot leader Doctor Joseph Warren sent Paul Revere and William Dawes on horseback with identical written messages to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams of

648-668: The town gate. Burglars and pickpockets were commonly executed in those days, in addition to murderers. In colonial times , the Charles River marshes were north of the neck, and Gallows Bay was on the south side. It was so named because of the nearby executions at the neck. It later became known as South Bay. The main road through the neck was called Orange Street on Capt. John Bonner’s map of 1722. In 1710, additional fortifications were constructed. There were supposedly two wooden gates, one for carriages and one for foot travelers. In September 1774, General Thomas Gage strengthened

675-653: Was designed by Edmund March Wheelwright and was quite different from the other stations along the line, featuring a square stone exterior rather than sloping rooflines. Following the closure of the elevated, most of the stations were scrapped; however, the Northampton station headhouse was moved to the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine in 1988, where it remains today, and parts of Dudley station were saved and incorporated into

702-597: Was extended to Dudley Square and given a more direct routing. In 2002, the MBTA deployed bus rapid transit along much of the route from Dudley Square to Downtown Crossing in the form of Phase I of the controversial Silver Line , replacing the 49. Although branded as bus rapid transit , the Washington Street section of the Silver Line is generally considered short of the international BRT Standard , as it lacks bus rapid transit elements such as dedicated bus lanes and pre-pay stations. The Silver Line has also been subject to neighborhood criticism, as it makes fewer stops than

729-437: Was originally about 120 feet (37 m) wide at normal high tide. The first wave of settlers built a wooden town gate and earthen wall on the neck in about 1631 to prevent attacks from natives and to keep out unwanted animals and people. The gate was constantly guarded and usually locked during certain times during the evening. No residents could enter or leave during that period. There was a wooden gallows located just outside

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