Boston Skyline

This view includes the Hancock Building and Prudential Center as seen from across the Charles River in Cambridge, Mass. The Harvard Bridge, which brings Massachusetts Avenue over the river into M.I.T.'s midst, is in the left half of the picture. Ashdown House and Killian Court are on either side of Massachusetts Avenue on the Cambridge end of the Harvard Bridge. I suppose they would have named the Harvard Bridge the M.I.T. Bridge, but M.I.T. wasn't around when they built it. If you continue far enough after crossing the Harvard Bridge from Boston you reach Harvard as well. It's about a half hour walk (2 miles). See the Charles River drawing for the other half of the Harvard Bridge.

When I first came to M.I.T., the bridge used to bounce up and down whenever a heavy truck went by. I think it was made of wrought iron. After a bridge in Connecticut collapsed, plans got underway to renovate this one. The renovation took place while I was taking a welding class at the Lowell Institute School and provided an interesting practical example. Now any motion of the bridge is imperceptible when a big truck goes by. I kind of miss the rocking, but I certainly wouldn't have wanted to end up in the Charles when the bridge failed.

Charles River Series #8

November 3, 1996