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The 'Charles River' is a small, relatively short river in Massachusetts, USA, that separates Boston from Cambridge and Charlestown. It is fed by about 80 brooks and streams and several major aquifers as it flows snakelike for 80 miles (129 km), starting at Echo Lake () in Hopkinton, through 58 cities and towns in eastern Massachusetts before emptying into Boston Harbor. Its watershed contains 33 lakes and ponds. Despite the river's length and relatively large drainage area (308 square miles; 798 km²), its source is only 26 miles (42 km) from its mouth, and the river drops only 350 feet (107 m) from source to sea. It is the most densely populated river basin in New England.
Harvard University, Boston University, Brandeis University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are all located along the Charles River; at Boston proper it opens out into a broad basin and is lined by parks such as the Charles River Esplanade (in which stands the Hatch Shell, where concerts are given in summer evenings) especially known for its Independence Day celebration. The river is well known for its rowing, sculling, and sailing, both recreational and competitive. The Head of the Charles Regatta is held annually, in October.

Contents

Early history

Design

Pollution and remediation efforts

Athletic mile markers

In popular culture

Crossings

See also

References

External links

Early history

The river's name, preceding the English version, was once thought to be ''Quinobequin'' (meandering), though that attribution has been discredited by, among others, the Harvard University Librarian in 1850. The river was used by Native Americans for local transportation and fishing, and as part of the passage from southeastern Massachusetts to northern New England. Captain John Smith gave the river its current English name in honor of Charles I of England, the reigning monarch. Subsequent European settlers harnessed the river for industrialization, and by 1640 entrepreneurs on the Neponset River had diverted its water to power their mills.
Waltham was the site of the first factory in America, built by Francis Cabot Lowell in 1814, and by the 19th century, the Charles River was one of the most industrialized areas in the United States. Its hydropower soon fueled many mills and factories. By the century's end, 20 dams had been built across the river, mostly to generate power for industry. An 1875 government report listed 43 mills along the 9.5-mile (15 km) tidal estuary from Watertown Dam to Boston Harbor.
In portions of its length, the Charles drops slowly in elevation and has relatively little current. Despite this, early settlers in Dedham, Massachusetts, found a way to use the Charles to power mills. In 1639, the town dug a canal from the Charles to a nearby brook that drained to the Neponset River. By this action, a portion of the Charles's flow was diverted, providing enough current for several mills. The new canal and the brook together are now called Mother Brook. The canal is regarded as the first industrial canal in North America. Today it remains in use for flood control.

Design

Today's Charles River basin between Boston and Cambridge is almost entirely a work of human design. Its design was the work of noted landscape architects Charles Eliot and Arthur Shurcliff, both of whom had apprenticed with Frederick Law Olmsted, and by the architect and landscape architect Guy Lowell. This designed landscape now includes over 20 parks and natural areas along 19 miles (31 km) of shoreline, from the New Dam at the Charlestown Bridge to the dam near Watertown Square.
Eliot first envisioned today's river design in the 1890s, but major construction began only after his death with the damming of the river's mouth at today's Museum of Science, an effort led in by James Jackson Storrow. The new dam, completed in 1910, stabilized the water level from Boston to Watertown, eliminating the existing mud flats, and a narrow embankment was built between Leverett Circle and Charlesgate. After Storrow's death, his widow Mrs. James Jackson Storrow donated $1 million toward the creation of a more generously landscaped park along the Esplanade; it was dedicated in 1936 as the Storrow Memorial Embankment. This also enabled the construction of many public docks in the Charles River Basin, including the foundation of Community Boating, Inc.[1], the nation's first non-profit sailing club. In the 1950s a highway (Storrow Drive) was built along the edge of the Esplanade to connect Charles Circle with Soldiers Field Road, and the Esplanade was enlarged on the water side of the new highway.

Pollution and remediation efforts

Despite its famous water pollution, making the Charles "Swimmable by 2005" became an important EPA goal¹. While this promise was not reached in time, swimming and fishing are progressively re-emerging as about 90% of the length of the river is now considered safe for swimming². Health risks remain, however, particularly after rainstorms and when walking in certain riverbeds stirs up toxic sediment.
During the period September 2004 to September 2006, the City of Cambridge and the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation introduced vegetation at Magazine Beach just west of the BU Bridge on the Cambridge side of the river. This introduced vegetation had significant trouble living there because it was not native to the Charles River. The vegetation installed created a wall preventing the reintroduction of swimming at Magazine Beach.

Athletic mile markers

The Charles is a popular running and biking path, and several runners including the MIT Women's Track Team gauge their distance and speed by keeping track of the mileage between the bridges that run from the Museum of Science past the Harvard campus through map/charts such as this one: [2].

In popular culture

★ The Charles River is an icon for Boston and is featured in the song "Dirty Water" by The Standells:
:''Down by the River...''
:''Down by the banks of the River Charles''
::''(Oh, that's what's happenin' baby)''
:''That's where you'll find me''
:''Along with lovers, muggers, and thieves.''
::''(Ahh, but they're cool people)''

★ Todd Rundgren's song ''Boat on the Charles'' from '' is written from the point of view of someone contemplating suicide in the Charles because of an unrequited love.

★ In William Faulkner's ''The Sound and the Fury'', the tormented Quentin character commits suicide by drowning himself in the Charles.

★ The 2004 film ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' featured a prominent scene on the frozen river.

★ The 1994 film ''The River Wild'' opens with Meryl Streep rowing under the Watertown Bridge (Galen Street, Rt. 16) proceeding east past the Perkins School for the Blind Chapel tower and on to Boston.

★ In the novel ''The Bell Jar'' by Sylvia Plath, the protagonist, Esther, briefly considers committing suicide by jumping into the Charles off of a bridge.

★ In the short story "El encuentro" (The Meeting) by Jorge Luís Borges a mature Borges sits on the bank of the river Charles and comes faces to face with a younger version of himself. He determines that in the past he must have had the encounter during a dream and dismissed it as fantasy, though later accepting it as real.

Crossings

Main articles: List of crossings of the Charles River

See also

★ List of Massachusetts rivers

References

★ ''Inventing the Charles River'', by Karl Haglund, MIT Press, 2003, in collaboration with the Charles River Conservancy.

★ ''Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston'', by Nancy S. Seasholes, MIT Press, 2003.

★ ''Omeros'', by Derek Walcott, Faber and Faber (London), 1990. (Repeated references to the Charles river in descriptions of Boston life.)

External links

★ Map and satellite photo links to the Charles River

★ Charles River Watershed Association, includes swimmability maps

★ Charles River Conservancy

★ "Swimmable by 2005" EPA Effort

★ Charles River Swimming Club

★ Charles River Museum of Industry

★ US Geological Survey data on flow in Charles River at Waltham with links to data for other measurement sites