A Changing Channel

in South Boston

Traffic came to a halt as sugar boat SS Evelyn was towed through the Congress Street Bridge in 1929. Soon a bascule bridge that pivoted up replaced the swing-span bridge. The new bridge eliminated the center drum, allowing a 75-foot opening.

Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection

Originally a natural deepwater channel, Fort Point Channel was defined in the 19th century by land created on both sides. It was a thriving industrial waterway for years before it declined in the 20th century.

Industries flocked to the newly made land. Iron foundries, sugar refineries, and machine shops clustered on this side of the channel. The leather industry settled on the other. The channel teemed with boats bringing raw materials, such as lumber, bricks, and cement, to growing industrial and residential areas. Sugar and molasses were delivered to one-story warehouses located here and nearby. Coal was distributed widely by boat and train to fuel steam engines running factory machinery and later electrical plants.

Drawbridges across the channel improved access to South Boston industries but slowed boat traffic. New rail lines and piers like Fan Pier along the harbor reduced the channel’s use, as did filling South Bay. In the 1950s, when the bridges were fixed in place, shipping on the channel ended. Today, new development along this historic waterway is spurring its revitalization as a recreational and cultural destination.

This 1775 Boston Harbor chart shows a natural deepwater channel between the Boston peninsula and a broad area of mudflats. The channel was named after Fort Point (f), a point of land at the base of Fort Hill.

Courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library

Fashionable Bostonians enjoyed strolling on the South Boston Bridge in the 1820s before heavy industry prevailed. The bridge stood between what was known as South Bay to the south and the Fort Point Channel to the north. It is now West 4th Street where the channel ends in a culvert below.

Courtesy of the Boston Athenaeum

Boats and trains delivered iron ore and coal to industries like Cyrus Alger’s South Boston Iron Works. The coal fueled furnaces that melted the iron.

Courtesy of Historic New England

In 1903, many vessels still used the channel. They navigated through its bridges, some all the way to South Bay at upper right.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Sign Location

More …

Community activists. Colonial law. Political will. New state regulations. The combination created the 43-mile Boston Harborwalk–a public path, stretching from Logan Airport through seven neighborhoods to the Neponset River. In 1978, the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) sought to improve public access to the waterfront. They succeeded by integrating early Colonial laws into new state regulations.

In the decades that followed, community activists, city and state government, and developers of shoreline projects have worked together to ensure the Harborwalk is always constructed along the waterfront. Some sites also provide public amenities–bathrooms, meeting places, kayak launches,
etc. The result is a fabulous path welcoming residents and visitors to our vibrant clean harbor.

Early Colonial laws established public right of access along tidelands to protect citizens’ rights to fish, hunt, and navigate at sea and along the shorefront. These laws go back even further: They stem from Roman law, which was incorporated into English law and brought over to Massachusetts by English
settlers. Then, in the 1640s, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed laws permitting private docks in the intertidal area (between low and high tide) as long as public access was retained. Almost all of Boston’s waterfront is filled land that was once the intertidal area. This, together with the centuries-old legal right of access, served as the underpinnings for the 1978 CZM regulations.

Resources

  • Bennett, Lola. Historic American Engineering Record: Summer Street Bridge: HAER NO. MA-135. National Park Service, 1995.
  • Carolan, Jane. Historic American Engineering Record: Fort Point Channel: HAER NO. MA-130. National Park Service, 1995.
  • Clement, Dan and Peter Stott. Historic American Engineering Record: Congress Street Bascule Bridge: HAER NO. MA-38. National Park Service, 1984.
  • Clement, Dan and Peter Stott. Historic American Engineering Record: New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Fort Point Channel Rolling Lift Bridge: HAER NO. MA-35. National Park Service, 1984.
  • “Fort Point Channel Activation Plan.” City of Boston, 2002.
  • The Fort Point Channel Landmark District: Boston Landmarks Commission Study Report. City of Boston, 2009.
  • Hollinger, Steve. Boston’s Fort Point District: A Landmark of New England’s Maritime and Industrial Past. Boston Landmark Commission, 2001.
  • Leather District: National Registration of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form. U.S. Department of Interior Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, 1980.
  • Massachusetts Historical Commission Reconnaissance Survey Town Report Boston, 1981.
  • Seasholes, Nancy S. Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston. The MIT Press, 2003.
  • Stott, Peter. “Economic and Industrial Development.” Historical and Archaeological Resources of the Boston Area: A Framework for Preservation Decisions. Massachusetts Historical Commission, 1982.
  • Stott, Peter. A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Boston Proper. The MIT Press, 1984.
  • Stott, Peter, South Boston. Draft industrial archeology report on firms in South Boston, On file at Massachusetts Historical Commission.
  • Tyrrell, Michael J. Boston’s Fort Point District. Arcadia Publishing, 2003.

Acknowledgments

  • Warm thanks to Nancy Seasholes for her reliable assistance.
  • A special thank you to Peter Stott, who graciously provided access to an unpublished paper and patiently answered questions about work he’d completed decades ago.
  • Our gratitude to the Perkins School for the Blind Recording Studio and Thomasine Berg for their partnership in creating the audio files.