Report of the Board of Metropolitan Park Commissioners Volume 4 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 Excerpt: ... the fourth cross-section. When it is remembered that there are, above Cottage Farm, some ten miles of salt-marsh river bank which must sooner or later be made usable, the obvious economy, as well as the greater usefulness and beauty, to be secured by the scheme which substitutes a short crosswise wall or dam near the river's mouth for ten miles of wall leading up stream and back again, cannot be questioned or disguised. Watertown, and part of Newton, with Brighton, and especially Cambridge, are now positively suffering for a decision of the question of dam or no dam. If there is to be no dam, the river ought to be dredged; if there is to be a dam, much of the dredging may be safely omitted; and so on. It is to be regretted that the joint commission which originally proposed the dam went out of existence with the filing of its report. A project, no matter how worthy, which requires the co-operation of four municipalities, three park commissions, the State and the United States, cannot be expected to accomplish itself. Meanwhile, and whether Charles River is to be relieved of the invading tides or not, at least the location for an adequate and handsome connection between the existing Muddy River Parkway and the proposed Charles River Parkway ought to be secured before the construction of buildings makes it too costly. As was pointed out in a report addressed to the Commission early in the year, such a connection would greatly enhance the value of the Metropolitan as well as the Boston and Cambridge parkways; and, as was then suggested, it can best be secured by widening St. Mary's Street and Ashby Street, as an extension to Charles River of the existing Audubon Road of the Boston Park System. It is about at the end of Ashby Street that the narrow Charles Riv...