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    Boston's Blue Line
    Boston's Blue Line
    Boston's Blue Line
    Ebook168 pages35 minutes

    Boston's Blue Line

    By Frank Cheney

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    About this ebook

    Boston's rapid-transit Blue Line covers a distance of 5.94 miles, a twenty-three-minute commute that begins at Bowdoin station in downtown Boston, travels under the harbor, passes Revere Beach, and stops at Wonderland. Today's commuters might be surprised to learn that the line they are riding was once operated by trolley cars and narrow-gauge steam-powered commuter trains, for it was not until 1904 that the East Boston Tunnel under the harbor was completed. By 1917, the number of people riding the Blue Line had climbed to twenty-five thousand a day. Although significant advances had been made to accommodate high-volume commuter traffic, rush-hour congestion at downtown stations remained a problem. In the 1920s, with ridership exceeding forty-two thousand people a day, the Boston Elevated Railway and the Boston Transit Commission agreed to convert the tunnel to a rapid-transit operation with a transfer station at Maverick Square. Further expansion occurred in the 1950s, when the Blue Line was extended to Orient Heights, Suffolk Downs, and Revere Beach.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateApr 7, 2004
    ISBN9781439615768
    Boston's Blue Line
    Author

    Frank Cheney

    Authors Frank Cheney, a photograph collector and transportation historian, and Anthony M. Sammarco, a Boston-area historian and author of numerous Arcadia books, have worked together to bring us this informative visual record of transportation history.

    Read more from Frank Cheney

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      Book preview

      Boston's Blue Line - Frank Cheney

      RODE

      INTRODUCTION

      Riders boarding one of today’s modern Blue Line trains in downtown Boston for a fast ride under the harbor to East Boston and Revere might be surprised to learn that the route they are traveling on was once operated by trolley cars and narrow-gauge, steam-powered commuter trains and that the opening of the tunnel under the harbor in December of 1904 was the culmination of nearly 40 years of effort to provide the residents of densely settled East Boston with direct access to the downtown business area. Now, let us take a ride through history and look at the early problems of cross-harbor commuting, which were finally remedied by the construction of the tunnel known as the Blue Line since 1965.

      Settlement of East Boston, originally called Noddle’s Island after the first settler in 1625, proceeded slowly until 1833, when the East Boston Land Company was established by Gen. William Sumner to spur both residential and commercial development.

      Steam ferry service to downtown Boston began in January 1835. The Eastern Railroad Company opened an East Boston Terminal for its new train service to Salem in 1838, and the Cunard Steamship Company began passenger and mail service from East Boston to Liverpool in 1840. Local transit to serve East Boston’s growing population began in September 1860, when the Suffolk Railroad Company began running horsecars along Meridian, Maverick, and Liverpool Streets. The cars ran to both the north and south ferry docks, where they were hauled onto ferryboats for the trip to downtown Boston. The cars deposited the riders in Scolley Square after their uninterrupted one-seat ride across the harbor. On July 27, 1864, Boston’s largest horse railway system, the Metropolitan Railroad, took over the Suffolk Railroad and attempted to acquire both the ferry lines as well. This led to a lengthy dispute with the city of Boston, which acquired the ferry lines and proceeded to ban the Metropolitan’s cars from using the ferryboats as of September 28, 1871. Meanwhile in 1868, a state charter had been granted for construction of a cross-harbor bridge with a draw span near the center. However, this plan was killed by the authorities in Washington who felt it would hinder navigation. In 1875, a General Foster came forth with a plan for a twin tube, gaslit tunnel that would follow the same route as the vetoed bridge plan. This plan was finally given up in 1880 for technical reasons, such as grades, sanitation, and ventilation.

      East Boston’s transit problems finally received attention in June 1891, when the statesponsored rapid-transit commission undertook a complete study of all passenger and freight transportation in the Boston area. This study resulted in the state legislature creating two entities in 1894: the Boston Transit Commission to build subways in the city of Boston and the Boston Elevated Railway to build and operate an elevated railway system.

      The transit commission quickly began work, and the Tremont Street Subway, which ran through the heart of downtown Boston, was completed on September 3, 1898. On May 5, 1900, work began at Maverick Square on the East Boston Tunnel to carry trolley cars under the harbor to downtown Boston, possibly connecting to the new Tremont Street Subway. As work progressed on the tunnel, a continuing series of disputes developed between the Boston Elevated, which would operate the tunnel service, and the transit commission, which was building the tunnel. The disputes centered on the 23-foot diameter of the tunnel, the downtown terminal location, the possible connection to the planned Cambridge Elevated line, and whether trolley cars, elevated trains, or both would operate in the tunnel.

      When the tunnel opened to the public on Thursday, December 30, 1904, none of these disputes had been resolved, which became quite obvious on Sunday, January 2, 1905, when 75,000 people rode through the new tunnel, greatly straining the capacity of the temporary Court Street Terminal, separated only by a thin wall from the Scolley Square Station of the Tremont Street Subway. The Boston Elevated’s engineers proceeded to come up with a unique solution by designing a new type of tunnel car capable of loading passengers from the street and low-level platforms, as well as the high-level elevated-train platforms. With the removal of the elevated trains, which were temporarily operating through the Tremont Street Subway, the high-level platforms in the stations would be retained, the platforms in the East Boston Tunnel stations raised, the tunnel connection at the Scolley Square–Court Street Station would be completed, and all service provided by the new type of tunnel cars. After successful trials with a pilot tunnel car built in the Boston Elevated’s Bartlett Street shops, a total of 197 of these big, bi-level loading cars were

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