While the Charles River is the setting for many activities from spring through summer, you may enjoy taking part in the following events in September and October as we did recently: Riversing On a beautiful Sunday September afternoon at summer’s end, a large, diverse crowd at the Weeks Footbridge awaited the arrival of Revelers* parading from […]
The Charles River travels eighty miles from its source through twenty-three towns and cities, shaped by human activity all along the way, some of that harmful to the health of the river – such as the construction of dams that have slowed the water’s flow and factories (and even an abbatoir) that have dumped their […]
If you are visiting Boston for the first time or looking for summer activity without leaving the city, the Charles River and its shores provide a setting for several events and opportunities for recreation and rest. The continuous pathway on either the Boston or Cambridge side of the river can take you to a number […]
Many around here are familiar with the Standells’ ode to the Charles River “Love that Dirty Water,” and during sailing lessons at Community Boating when I was young, we were told to be careful about falling into the water because of its unsavory quality. Well, the water did look a bit murky,*and there was some […]
Prior to the construction of the Charles River dam in 1910, the tides had brought in salt water that mingled with the fresh water of the river, and as the tides receded, brackish, stagnant water was left behind creating an unpleasant stench, especially when the refuse of neighboring homes was added – the whole thing […]
A previous blog entry described the geological depression where the city of Boston is situated as the Boston Basin and the pond between Boston and Cambridge as the Charles River Basin, the crown jewel of a nine-mile basin from Boston and Cambridge to Watertown Square that is part of the seventeen-mile long Charles River Reservation […]
The Longfellow Bridge looks out over the Esplanade, the sparkling waters of the Charles River basin where boats sail from April to November, and the city of Boston with its gold-domed capitol building atop Beacon Hill providing a backdrop for this scenic view. The 3,500-foot Longfellow Bridge on the Charles River basin between Cambridge and […]
The Boston Basin is the geological description of the area where the city is situated, a depression of land bordered on three sides by higher ground forming a rim that extends from the Fellsway in the north (“Fells” is a Saxon word meaning “rocky, hilly, tracts of land”), to the rocky suburbs west of the […]
The water that will become the Charles River falls several feet from a small circular dam at the Milford Reservoir, passing through a water treatment plant and flowing under a bridge on Dilla Street. The newly formed river then rambles through a park and disappears in a culvert beneath the main street in Milford, before […]
After an unusually cool and rainy spring, we took advantage of a Sunday afternoon in April to rent a two-person kayak at Newton Paddle Boston in the historic Norumbega boat house. The staff provided us with paddles and life jackets and went over a few basics. We took a map of that section of the […]
Where the Charles River Road parallels the river from Watertown Square to Brighton, a half-mile Braille Trail was created for the blind and the deaf blind to enjoy nature and explore the banks of the Charles. An unsighted person can follow a guide wire connected by wooden posts along a walking path to points of interest, […]
To those who have visited Boston, the iconic scene of the Charles River Basin with its sailboats gliding near the Longfellow Bridge is like a sparkling jewel with the golden dome of the statehouse in the background on historic Beacon Hill. This man-made basin or pond was created by the damming of the Charles River […]
The upper portion of the Charles River is so different from the river that flows into the heart of Boston. Begin at the Broadmoor Sanctuary (mostly in Dover) and drive toward Sherborn. Along the way you will find a quiet stretch of river with several wetland areas. A few years ago one of my more […]
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