General Plan
Boston is an irregularly shaped city and relatively small in size, covering only 47 square miles (122 km2). Until the late 1950's much of it, including the downtown section, had undergone a long period of deterioration with little new construction. Urban renewal has since brought new office buildings, large housing developments, extensive restoration, and a vigor unknown for decades.
The downtown section, site of the original settlement, fronts on Boston Inner Harbor below the merged estuaries of the Charles, Mystic, and Chelsea rivers. In this area are the towering buildings of the main business district and a complex of federal, state, and local government buildings called Government Center. The Center is in the old Scollay Square area and is probably best known for the City Hall, noted for its contemporary architecture. Nearby are Boston Common, the oldest park in the nation; the Public Garden; and most of Boston's historic buildings.
Residential sections in this part of the city include Beacon Hill, with sedate homes of a bygone era; the North End, sometimes called "Little Italy"; the South End, a racially mixed area undergoing redevelopment; and Chinatown. Across the harbor are Charlestown, East Boston, and Logan International Airport.
Inland from downtown Boston is the section known as Back Bay, which stretches along the Charles River Basin opposite the city of Cambridge. Back Bay is an area of elegant streets and 19th-century homes, of prominent educational and cultural institutions, and of rapid redevelopment. Since the completion of the Prudential Center in the early 1960's it has developed into a major business section. Among the buildings here are the 52-story Prudential Tower: the 60-story John Hancock Tower, tallest building in the city; and a large municipal auditorium.
Other sections of Boston include Brighton, which is west of Back Bay, and Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, West Roxbury, and Hyde Park, which are south of Back Bay and the downtown area. These sections of Boston, which are predominantly residential, were acquired by annexation, mainly during the 19th century.
Boston's streets follow no consistent pattern and veer in many directions; according to tradition, they were originally cowpaths. Most of the principal thoroughfares, however, are relatively straight. Many converge on the downtown section, much like the spokes of a wheel. Among them are Commonwealth, Dorchester, and Huntington avenues; Beacon and Washington streets; and four expressways. Three tunnels under the harbor connect downtown Boston with East Boston and the airport. Numerous bridges span the rivers and estuaries.
Public transportation is furnished to Boston and surrounding communities by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). It operates the city's rapid transit network of subway, surface, and elevated lines and numerous bus lines. Railways also provide commuter service.
In addition to Cambridge, the chief cities that adjoin Boston are Chelsea, Everett, Somerville, Watertown, Newton, Brookline, Needham, Dedham, Milton, and Quincy. Within the great semicircular metropolitan area are scores of other communities. Included are Salem, Lynn, Medford, Waltham, Wellesley, Framingham, Weymouth, and the historic towns of Lexington and Concord.
