Craig, Ron, and Stuart investigate Boston's infrastructure, 3.14.2004
Page 1: We Set Out and Explore the Area behind the Science Museum.
Craig, Ron Newman, and I decided to take a long walk on Sunday, March
14th to check out some interesting construction sites in Boston.
In particular, we wanted to check out some work areas which Craig and I had
visited previously, but had probably changed in the intervening weeks.
Ron also had some suggestions for sites which
Craig and I had never seen.
These web pages are a record of our tour. I hope they are of interest
to fellow urban explorers and infrastructure geeks!
We met at 10:00am at the Au Bon Pain in Kendall Square. I was early,
and Craig and Ron appeared exactly on time.
Unfortunately, I had not
erased the photos left on my camera from our last jaunt. Since I had
about 100 old photos on my camera, and erasing each one required a
sequence of button presses, I started deleting the old photos while we
were still having coffee. I was still deleting photos when we
left. Ron took us on a tour of East Cambridge, and I was still deleting
photos. We checked out the
American Twine Building, the courthouse, and the Lechmere Canal, and
I was still deleting photos. In fact,
I spent most of our East Cambridge
tour manually erasing my camera when I would rather have paid
attention to our tour and taken photos. Therefore, I have no
photographic record of that leg of our walk. What a D-R-A-G!
My camera was finally ready for photography when we got to the MDC
police station at the corner of Land Blvd. and the O'Brien Highway.
(Remember that technically, the Cambridge part of Route 28 is called the O'Brien, not
the McGrath Highway!)
Therefore, we start our photographic tour there.
Click on a photo to get a larger verion of the shot.
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Ron points out the Green Line viaduct with "1910" dating on the tower
while Craig mugs for the camera.
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Immediately showing his intimate knowledge of Boston's highways and
byways, Ron took us through an inconspicuous door in the Science
Museum's garage, and out onto the walkway which faces the Charles River Basin
outside the Science Museum. Here's Ron and Craig checking out the view.
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Ron poses for the camera and Craig hides. In the background lies
the Basin and Boston's Back Bay. What a beautiful view one gets from
here!
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After checking out the Science Museum's Basin view, we headed up to
the old Charles River Dam's canal situated next to the Science
Museum. Here's Craig and Ron standing on the lift bridge over the
old locks looking at the view of Boston. Check out the condition of
the sign -- this is classic MDC work!
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A far-away shot of the explorers on the lift bridge. Is it really the
"Craigie Bridge"? I have never heard it called that . . . .
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The old locks has lots of warning signs for boaters, including this
one which says "Danger, stay in boat, keep off".
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I had walked way into the area around the old locks when Craig and Ron
decided to check it out too. The entry point is an unlocked gate at
the top of the stairs. In this photo, Craig and Ron are nervously
checking out
the locks.
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From the locks, you get this view of the Science Museum's picnic area.
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