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Inventing the Charles River
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Inventing the Charles River

Author: Karl Haglund
Publisher: Cambridge : MIT Press, ©2003.
Edition/Format:   Book : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
"Two hundred years ago the Charles was a tidal river, edged by hundreds of acres of salt marshes and mudflats. Inventing the Charles River describes how, before the creation of the basin could begin, the river first had to be imagined as a single public space. The new esplanades along the river changed the way Bostonians perceived their city: and the basin, with its expansive views of Boston and Cambridge, became an  Read more...
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Additional Physical Format: Online version:
Haglund, Karl.
Inventing the Charles River.
Cambridge : MIT Press, c2003
(OCoLC)606906593
Material Type: Internet resource
Document Type: Book, Internet Resource
All Authors / Contributors: Karl Haglund
ISBN: 0262083078 9780262083072
OCLC Number: 49283903
Notes: "Published in cooperation with the Charles River Conservancy."
Map on lining papers.
Description: xxi, 493 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.) ; 23 x 26 cm.
Contents: Foreword / Renata von Tscharner --
Earth Work --
The Science of City Building --
A Water Park --
The Emerald Metropolis --
Damming the Basin --
The Colleges and the Esplanades --
Highways and Park Ways --
The Lost Half Mile --
The Big Dig --
Crossing the Charles --
Urban Visions and the Future of the River --
Views from the River.
Responsibility: Karl Haglund.
More information:

Abstract:

"Two hundred years ago the Charles was a tidal river, edged by hundreds of acres of salt marshes and mudflats. Inventing the Charles River describes how, before the creation of the basin could begin, the river first had to be imagined as a single public space. The new esplanades along the river changed the way Bostonians perceived their city: and the basin, with its expansive views of Boston and Cambridge, became an iconic image of the metropolis." "The book focuses on the precarious balance between transportation planning and the stewardship of the public realm. Long before the esplanades were realized, great swaths of the river were given over to industrial enterprises and transportation - millponds, bridges, landfills, and a complex network of road and railway bridges. In 1929, Boston's first major highway controversy erupted when a four-lane road was proposed as part of a new esplanade. At twenty-year intervals, three riverfront road disputes followed, successively more discordant and complex, culminating in the lawsuits over "Scheme Z," the Big Dig's plan for eighteen lanes of highway ramps and bridges over the river. More than four hundred photographs, maps, and drawings illustrate past and future visions for the Charles and document the river's place in Boston's history."--BOOK JACKET.

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