BERy Trivia / Seashore Trivia

The EGE wrote:Summer Street over Fort Point Channel
Summer Street over Reserved Channel
Congress Street over Fort Point Channel?
St. Marys Street Bridge over the Charles?

Pretty sure you got the first three right. Don't know that the last one would have had tracks. Wasn't that a temporary floating bridge?

BostonUrbEx wrote:

The EGE wrote:Summer Street over Fort Point Channel
Summer Street over Reserved Channel
Congress Street over Fort Point Channel?
St. Marys Street Bridge over the Charles?

Pretty sure you got the first three right. Don't know that the last one would have had tracks. Wasn't that a temporary floating bridge?

The EGE got 2 out of 4, the two bridges on Summer St.
Congress St. was once a retractile bridge, later replaced with a bascule, but it never had streetcar tracks.
If by St. Mary's St. you mean Cottage Farm Bridge, the present steel arch was built in the 1930s.
All of these were still present in the 1950s, possibly without active tracks.

One of EGE's wrong answers was oh so close, the other was a liftle further away.

I'm going to have to guess Dorchester Ave for a second Fort Point crossing.

BostonUrbEx wrote:I'm going to have to guess Dorchester Ave for a second Fort Point crossing.

You are indeed correct. Dorchester Avenue over the Fort Point Channel was a retractile bridge until it was replaced with a fixed bridge in the 1960s. Dorchester Ave. between Summer St. and Foundry St. was closed during the reconstruction, and never reopened, since the Post Office usurped the road for its purposes. The streetcar tracks carried Route 8, a rush hour operation between City Point and South Station, which was abandoned on April 4, 1947, after being cut at the bridge on December 2, 1946, for an earlier rehab of that structure.

The only one of the four to carry multiple routes, but very little traffic remains.

Dorchester Ave over the Fort Point Channel, in 1971:

jboutiet wrote:Dorchester Ave over the Fort Point Channel, in 1971:

Looks like the retractile lasted longer than I thought. I remember driving (bouncing) over it with my dad, but I don't recall ever driving my own car over it. That nice looking pavement was a thin layer of asphalt over wood planks.

Still that fourth one is out there...

I've got it -- I think... Warren Bridge across the Charles. A competitor with the North Washington Bridge. Although I don't know of any streetcar tracks ever being on this bridge.

Cars entering the Tremont Street Subway from the northeast to loop at Brattle Loop - notably including "foreign" cars of the Eastern mass and its predecessors - used the Warren Bridge.

BostonUrbEx wrote:I've got it -- I think... Warren Bridge across the Charles. A competitor with the North Washington Bridge. Although I don't know of any streetcar tracks ever being on this bridge.

Give the man a gold star, dipped in crater grease, of course.

The Warren Ave. Bridge over the Charles River was the primary crossing to Charlestown in the 1890s, when the previous edition of the Charlestown Bridge was too decrepit for heavy electric car operation. Following the opening of the present Charlestown Bridge ca. 1898, the narrower and lighter Warren Ave. Bridge was relegated to secondary service, being used primarily when the newer bridge's draw was opened. Service via Warren Ave was also provided by the through cars of the Eastern Mass. since the route was shorter. After the Charlestown Elevated opened in 1901, the number of cars crossing from Charlestown diminished greatly. Eastern Mass service ended in the mid-1930s when the Chelsea Bridge was condemned. When the Charlestown Bridge was struck by a vessel late in World War II, the Warren Ave. Bridge came to the rescue, handling traffic diverted from the Elevated. After 1949, when streetcar service to Charlestown ended, the tracks on both bridges were used only for shop moves, and use of the Warren Bridge soon ended. The bridge was overshadowed by the new, double-deck highway bridge constructed in 1950, but it remained open until the middle of the decade. In the 1980s, the new Charles River Dam was constructed in the site, and is open to pedestrians.

The Summer St. Bridge over the Fort Point Channel has been fixed in place, but the undercarriage and rails remain intact. The pilings for the Dorchester Ave. Bridge over the Fort Point Channel and the Summer St. Bridge over the Reserved Channel remain visible next to the new spans. Little if any trace of the Warren Ave. Bridge remains.

Nw that we have crossed bridges, let's consider another way across the water.

The West End and Elevated operated cars from Roxbury marked "East Boston and Chelsea" and "Depots and Ferries". These cars connected with ferries across the Harbor, connecting at various points with rail lines on the other side. Name the locations where these ferries departed and arrived on the other side.

Winnissimet Ferry -- Hanover St Wharf to Winnissimet St Wharf
North Ferry -- Battery Wharf to Border St
South Ferry -- Sargent's Wharf to Lewis St Wharf
BRB&L Ferry -- Rowes Wharf to Jeffries Point Wharf

BostonUrbEx wrote:Winnissimet Ferry -- Hanover St Wharf to Winnissimet St Wharf
North Ferry -- Battery Wharf to Border St
South Ferry -- Sargent's Wharf to Lewis St Wharf
BRB&L Ferry -- Rowes Wharf to Jeffries Point Wharf

Very, very good! The only wrong one is the Boston End of the South Ferry. It was very close to Sargent's Wharf but had its own name. The Ferry was at the end of a rather obscure street which lent its name to the wharf..

The North Ferry wharf was between Liverpool and Border in East Boston so either could be correct.
The Winnisimmet Ferry was commonly known as the Chelsea Ferry.

Eastern Ave?

(Boston 1891; Ward Maps)

jboutiet wrote:Eastern Ave?

(Boston 1891; Ward Maps)

Correct

My aunt worked at Long Island Hospital for the better part of a half century, and she used the same wharf to board that ferry. I used to recite the wharves along Atlantic Ave., and my aunt stopped me and said "You forgot Eastern Ave. Wharf." That's how I found out about it.