Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/84

widening of Charles River near its mouth gored deeply into the northern side of the peninsula, almost dividing it, and the waters were soon turned to account for a mill-pond. This was filled up by earth from the hills in 1807, adding more than 50 acres to the territory. Another broad cove on the southern side was filled in 1837, adding 77 acres more. The Back Bay, so called, and all the flats on both sides of the original neck, have since been reclaimed for the various uses of a public garden, and squares, streets, dwellings, churches, schools, hotels, manufactories, &c., constituting, in fact, a new city with many costly and elegant structures, on what was originally the narrowest and most disagreeable, but is now the fairest and widest, portion of the primitive site. But whole forests from the State of Maine, and vast quarries of granite, and hills of country gravel, have been put to service in fringing water margins, constructing the wharves, piers, and causeways, redeeming the flats, and furnishing piling and solid foundations for the stately edifices, private houses, halls, churches, and railroad stations, principally between Charles River and the old Dorchester flats. From the first settlement, however, the ownership and occupancy of land by the citizens were not confined to the soil of the peninsula. The land needed for grazing, farming, and wood, on neighbouring promontories and islands was soon placed under the jurisdiction of Boston, for its “inlargement.” Portions of territory, thus added, were from time to time severed, and have since been re-annexed. Noddle's Island, now East Boston, was “layd to Boston” in 1637. It then contained 660 acres, with several hundreds more of flats and marsh, since reclaimed. It has a wharf, 1000 feet in length, for the English and Canadian steamers. Dorchester Neck and Point, containing 560 acres, were annexed as South Boston in 1804, and the neighbouring Washington Village in 1855. The city of Roxbury was annexed in 1868; the town of Dorchester in 1870; the city of Charlestown, and the towns of Brighton and West Roxbury, in 1874. The 900 acres of the original peninsula have been doubled on its own area; while the present area of the city's jurisdiction covers 22,472 acres. The whole length of the original peninsula, from Roxbury line to Winnisimmet Ferry, was two miles and a little more than three quarters; its greatest breadth was 1 mile and 139 yards. The reclaimed territory is raised to a uniform level, sufficiently high to secure it against freshets, and is well drained. While the original site still preserves to a large extent its irregularity of surface, and its undulations, some of its former steep eminences have been reduced or wholly removed. The highest eminence in the old territory is about 110 feet above the sea-level. This work of levelling, grading, and reclaiming has been done at vast expense. But greater has been the expense of widening and straightening the narrow and crooked highways, streets, thoroughfares, and lanes of the first settlers, which are traditionally said to have been made by the cattle on their way to and from their pastures. This, next to the water-works, has been the occasion of the most considerable increase of the debt incurred by the city, somewhat relieved by assessments for betterment on abutting proprietors. It is believed that there has been a larger outlay of labour, material, and money, in reducing, levelling, and reclaiming territory, and in straightening and widening thoroughfares in Boston, than has been expended for the same purposes in all the other chief cities of the United States together. The broad watercourses around Boston are now spanned by causeways and bridges,—East Boston only, that the harbour may be opened to the navy-yard, being reached by a ferry. The first bridge over Charles River, that to Charlestown, was opened in 1786; the West Boston bridge, to Cambridge, in 1793; the Western Avenue, a solid causeway to Brookline, 7000 feet long, in 1821. Boston has now to maintain sixteen bridges. Most of the railroads also have their bridges. Six of the islands in Boston harbour are the property of the city, and three more of them have been ceded to the United States for fortifications. The harbour islands, including rocks and shoals, are very numerous, rendering the navigation through the two channels very difficult and easily guarded. But the harbour, when reached, is very secure. It is nearly 14 miles long, and 8 miles wide, giving nearly 60 square miles of anchorage. These islands were for the most part heavily wooded when first occupied, and some of them were profitably used for grazing and pasturage. Since they have been stripped of their primitive growth for fuel and building material, it has been found impracticable to reclothe them with trees, on account of the roughness of the sea-air. The washing of the soil from the bluffs of many of them, to the great injury of the harbour, has involved large expense in the erection of sea walls. The first settlers constructed rude defences, frequently repaired and extended, on Castle Island, 2¼ miles from Boston. More formidable works were raised here by an English engineer in 1701-3. The United States Government has constructed elaborate fortifications on this site, now called Fort Independence, which, with Forts Winthrop and Warren, on neighbouring islands, offer formidable harbour defences. The first lighthouse was erected in the harbour, on Beacon Island, 8¼ miles from the town, near the Great Brewster, in 1716. This was destroyed during the Revolutionary War, re-erected in 1783, ceded to the United States in 1790, refitted in 1856 and 1860, with a tower 98 feet high, fog-horn, bell, &c., and is now called the Outer Light. An inner lighthouse was established on Long Island Head in 1819, refitted in 1855. On the long spit, at the western extremity of the Little Brewster, stands the Bug or Spit Light, erected in 1856.

It is remarkable, considering the leading and conspicuous character which has always attached to Boston from the first English settlement of the country, that it should have remained for nearly two centuries under the simple form and administration of a town government, the same as that of the smallest interior hamlets. Such a government, by all the citizens assembled in “town meeting” to dispose all their affairs, was, however, found favourable to the development and prosperity of the community. Here was trained a homogeneous population under peculiar institutions. Wealth slowly but steadily increased, through the whale and cod fisheries, the fur-trade, the sale of lumber and pitch, and a commerce largely with the West Indies and elsewhere,—though much impeded by the restrictions of the English navigation laws. Heavy exactions and drawbacks were found in the Indian and in the French colonial wars. Here began opposition to the measures of the British ministry, for oppressing and taxing the colonies. The Stamp Act, passed in 1765, was repealed in 1766. The Tea Act, passed in 1773, was defied by the emptying of three cargoes of tea into the harbour, December 16 of the same year, by a party in the guise of “Mohawk Indians.” The port was closed by a British fleet, June 1, 1774. The British army evacuated Boston March 17, 1776, after having been beleaguered in it nearly a year. The constitution of the State was adopted here in 1780, midway in the war.

Boston received a city charter in 1822. Its Government is composed of a mayor, twelve aldermen, and a common council of seventy-two members, three from each of its twenty-four wards, annually elected by the citizens. There are commissioners for fire, water, health, and various other departments. There is a board of twelve overseers of the poor, with a commodious central building, connected