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Alford Street Bridge to fully reopen during rush hours starting on Thursday
By adamg on Mon, 03/25/2019 - 12:44pm
The Alford Street Bridge, which carries Rte. 99 over the Mystic River between the part of Charlestown everybody knows and the little bit of Boston on the other side of the river, will become a four-lane bridge again on Thursday, at least during rush hours, MassDOT reports.
This is a month earlier than the state had originally planned to restore two lanes in each direction. The bridge will continue to be narrowed to two lanes in off hours until repairs are finished, MassDOT says.
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Comments
I'm confused. I thought the far side of the Alford St Bridge was
in Everett. What does "the little bit of Boston on the other side of the river" mean?
There's a small bit of
There's a small bit of territory that is considered part of the City of Boston around the mouth of the bridge on the north side of the river.
Check Google Maps
See where it is still "alford st" on the north side of the Mystic River?
That's Boston.
The line is at Dexter St. where Alford becomes Broadway.
Just the area of Alford St. is Boston - nothing much more.
Probably colonial leftovers of some flavor.
The line is just north of
The line is just north of Dexter St.
They're currently gone due to the construction, but for a while there was a pair of town line signs: https://goo.gl/maps/NP3kZpqpNbT2
It's also subtle, but the street signs at Dexter St are City of Boston standard: https://goo.gl/maps/uK9ZAV3PDT92
thats interesting. according
thats interesting. according to openstreetmaps, the administrative boundary of boston extends an itty-bitty narrow strip into everett next to where rt-99 lands:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/2315704#map=14/42.3870/-71.0571
I lost the source, but I
I lost the source, but I remember reading before there was a bridge there, a ferry ran across the river in the same spot. In order to make running the ferry easier, that bit of land across the river also became Boston so the business would only fall under one local government.
Historical Artifact
Basically there was a ferry at the spot in 1649 when Malden (which included what became Everett) split from Charlestown, and someone made sure that the ferry stayed entirely in Charlestown after the split.
From https://www.necn.com/news/new-england/_NECN__Wynns_Everett__Or_Is_It_Bos...
That's a great map
I wonder why Boston extends so far out in the bay. Are there set rules for territorial waters of municipalities?
VERY simplified map
The map cited above from Open Street Maps is very, very simplified. It shows the boundary north of the Mystic River as three straight line segments when it actually consists of a mix of curved and straight segments, and more than three segments.
It's inaccurate in other areas, too. Where the Boston-Somerville city line crosses Cambridge St. (Charlestown), the city line follows the curve of Crescent Street, with one side of the street in one city and the other side in the other city. But the Open Street Map again shows it as a straight line, with all of Crescent Street and houses on both sides being incorrectly in Somerville.
There are other, much more accurate maps out there. This one looks almost like someone's school project. It doesn't seem to be based on any official sources. I don't trust it at all.
Not quite as large a scale, but one place to look would be at USGS maps, which are available (and downloadable) both in current versions and historic maps going back 100+ years.
But it is true that an extensive section north of the Mystic is in the city of Boston, extending up to just short of what used to be called Chemical Lane, now known as Horizon Way.
Here you go:
It's from 1902, so there may be some more recent changes, but it has a detailed legal description of Boston city boundaries as of that date, as well as a verbal description of all the boundary changes from the 1600s to 1902. One problem is it's a 36 MB download (PDF) for a 60 page atlas.
https://archives.lib.state.ma.us/handle/2452/47876
1848 Map
Here's a link to an 1848 map of the City of Charlestown that shows the bit in question: https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:1257b9962
The city line doesn't follow
The city line doesn't follow the river exactly. https://goo.gl/maps/vRpqBPSfBcq
Supposedly the reason is that when Malden split off from Charlestown, Charlestown wanted to keep control of both ends of the river ferry.
Alford St. on the other side
Alford St. on the other side of the bridge is still in Boston until just after Dexter st. Google Maps only knows what's up when it comes to Everett: excluding that portion from the highlight of Everett.
This bridge was totally rebuilt a few years ago
so why does it need repairs now?
It was simply a bad job. Some
It was simply a bad job. Some change order was made from a welded deck to a riveted deck, it was signed off, and the new bridge started to have problems within a year. After a couple years of hand wringing, they are re-doing it. And yes, we are paying for it. The WBZ article did mention they are trying to get he contractor to compensate for some of it.
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2018/11/01/i-team-everett-casino-alford-stre...
http://everettindependent.com/2018/11/07/alford-street-bridge-change-ord...
“Everybody ...
Know(s).” Or
E’rebody know.
...thanks, Adam.