That part of the map of Boston which exhibits
an equilateral triangle, as included between
Charlestown, Merrimac, and Causeway Streets,
having its apex in Haymarket Square, covers the
principal part of the area which was occupied
by this mill pond ; having been converted into
solid land with the materials obtained by the
levelling of Beacon Hill and the eminences W.
of it, excepting the creek, which was kept open
to connect the river with the harbor as long as
the navigation upon the Middlesex Canal was a
matter of consideration. This improvement was
commenced about 1804, and when completed, it
had added to the area of the city about 43 acres.
And here it may be remarked that the area of the
peninsula, which in its natural condition com-
prised, as above stated, only about 700 acres, has
been enlarged by continued encroachments upon
the sea, until it contains fully double this num-
ber of acres at the present time. The city is
now extending its limits in this manner more
rapidly than at any former period. The quan-
tity of land made, and in the process of being
made, by improvements recently undertaken by
the city at the south end, is estimated at over

2,000,000 square feet. By the railroads in this
direction entire hills of gravel are being removed
from their bases in the vicinity of Boston, to form
the foundations of a new and beautiful extension
of this flourishing city. It is not improbable
that the whole of the bays on each side of the
Neck may, at some period not far. distant, dis-
appear before the march of human enterprise,
and that the city may be otherwise extended
much into the area of Roxbury and Dorchester.
— Some knowledge of the natural structure of
the ground on which Boston is built is necessary
to explain the great irregularity of the plan upon
which its streets and thoroughfares have grown
up. The high hills in different quarters of the
town, with the coves, and creeks, and marshes,
thrusting themselves up between them on all
sides, would necessarily control the choice of
sites for building, and the location and courses
of the principal streets, in a place thus springing
up in the poverty and infancy of the country.
There is a similar irregularity in the lower part
of the city of New York. Even in Philadelphia,
the situation of which upon a gently-swelling
plain admitted of the most uniform arrangement
of the streets which could possibly be desired,
the operation of this principle is illustrated, in
the case of Dock Street, in the oldest part of the
city, which follows the winding course of an an-
cient creek running into the Delaware. This
seems the more remarkable there from being al-
most a solitary exception to the general plan.
But in Boston it would have been perhaps im-
possible for the founders of the city, even if they
could have anticipated its future growth and
greatness, with the means they had at command,
to have caused it to be built up on any outline
materially different from that which it received
As an example, an order dated March 30, 1640,
provides for a road between certain points, “ two
rods in breadth, as directly as the land will hear"
The first settlement of the town in 1630, and
its most populous part as late as 1650, was on
Washington Street, between State and Eliot
Streets, including the cross streets on either side,
which had all begun to be occupied; and Elm
Street, the upper part of Hanover Street, and
Sudbury Street, on the N. side. Here, in what
37
is now the centre of the city, the business of the
town commenced, and the most influential char-
acters dwelt. The first house of worship stood
near the corner of State and Devonshire Streets ;
the first store was on the N. corner of State
and Washington Streets; the first market place
was where the Old State House now stands.
■The residence of Governor Winthrop was on
the E. side of Washington Street, a little N.
of the Old South meeting house. Subsequently
the growth of trade and commerce occasioned
a larger proportionate increase of population at
the north end, which became “ for many years
the most populous and elegant portion of the
town."

The principal thoroughfares through Boston,
from the centre outwards, connecting with the
different avenues to the city, are as follows : To
Roxbury, over the Neck, either by Washington
Street or Tremont Street; to the Western Rail-
road, by Washington, Summer, and Kingston
Streets; to the Old Colony Railroad, by Wash-
ington, Summer, and South Streets; to South
Boston, over the new bridge, by Washington,
Summer, and Sea Streets; to the Eastern Rail-
road, and the Ferry to East Boston, by North
Market and Commercial Streets; to the north
end, and the Ferry to Chelsea, by Hanover
Street; to the Charles River Bridge leading to
Charlestown, by Union and Charlestown Streets;
to the Boston and Maine Railroad, the Fitch-
burg Railroad, and the Warren Bridge, leading
also to Charlestown, by Union and Haverhill
Streets; to the Lowell Railroad, by Court. Green,
Leverett, and Lowell Streets ; to Canal Bridge,
frequently called Craigie's Bridge, leading to
East Cambridge, by Court, Greenland Leverett
Streets; to the West Boston Bridge, leading to
Old Cambridge, by Court and Cambridge Streets;
to the Western Avenue, or Mill Dam, leading to
Brookline and Brighton, by Beacon Street; to
the Providence Railroad, by Tremont and Boyl-
ston Streets, or for pedestrians, over the Common.

The numerous avenues to Boston mentioned
in the foregoing paragraph constitute an inter-
esting and characteristic feature of the city.
They have been constructed at different periods,
as the business of the city, and its more conven-
ient connection with the surrounding country, re-
quired, and at an almost incalculable outlay of ex-
pense. The first of the bridges was the Charles
River Bridge, leading to Charlestown, which was
open for travel on the anniversary of the battle
of Bunker Hill, June 17,1786. It is 1503 feet in
length, and cost $50,000. The next was the bridge
to Old Cambridge, opened Nov. 23, 1793. Its
length is 2758 feet, with an abutment and cause-
way 3432 feet long, making a total length of 6190
feet. Cost, $76,667. The old bridge to South
Boston from the Neck, at Dover Street, opened
in 1805, is 1550 feet long, and cost about $50,000.
Craigie's Bridge, opened in 1809, is 2796 feet in
length. A lateral bridge extends from this to
Prison Point, Charlestown, 1820 feet in length.
The new bridge to South Boston, 500 feet long,
and the Warren Bridge, to Charlestown, 1390
feet long, were both completed in 1828. The
only other avenue to Boston, for ordinary travel,
is the Western Avenue, or Mill Dam, leading
from the foot of Beacon Street to Sewall's Point,
in Brookline. This avenue is upon a substan-
tial dam, extended across the western bay, about
a mile and a half in length, and from 60 to 10O