Aeriel view shows boundries of the Mill Pond: Merrimac and Causeway Streets and Joe Tecce Way
Gone But Not Forgotten: Boston's Mill Pond.
With today's energy concerns it interesting to note that in the 1700's Bostonians harnessed tidal power to mill grain. They did it using a man-made pond where today stand North Station and the TD BankNorth Garden. With a dam they enclosed a small bay and let the in-coming and out-going tides turn a great grist mill stone. The system worked well until the ever-growing Boston populations led planners to increase the city's land area by filling in the pond.
The great architect Charles Bulfinch laid out a triangle bordered by Merrimack, North Washington and Causeway streets and dirt and gravel was hauled down from the top of Beacon Hill for fill. As you might guess, Causeway Street follows the original dam. It's amazing to walk along Merrimack, Causeway and North Washington (also called Joe Tecce Way) streets and think about how ingenious and industrious our forebears were and how completely their works can be lost to dim past.
Fortunately, the planners of the new Rose Kennedy Greenway brought some of this history to light: in the first park of the Greenway they set dark granite in the ground following the route of one the retaining walls of the pond that was rediscovered during the Big Dig.
For more info see: http://www.masspike.com/bigdig/background/archaeology.html
Other Naturalist walks:
http://www.examiner.com/x-5221-Boston-Nature-Travel-Examiner~y2009m3d10-Tour-a-natural-oddity
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