Damming the Charles River (episode 311)

Transcript

Introduction to the Charles River Dam

Jake:
[0:04] Welcome to Hub History where we go far beyond the Freedom Trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston, the hub of the universe. This is episode 311. Damning the Charles River. Hi, I’m Jake. This week, I’m gonna be talking about the construction of the Charles River dam in Boston. This monumental project transformed the tidal estuary of the Back bay into a freshwater basin, providing 1/20 century solution to problems that the city inherited from the 19th century, including issues with industrial waste, sanitation and general public distaste for the acres of mud flats that were exposed at low tide. Temporary floodgates closed on October 20th, 1908, marking the first separation of the waters of Boston Harbor from the back bay’s brackish salt marsh. In the lead up to this moment, earthen dams are constructed on both sides of the river with a lock that allowed boats to pass through the dam on the Boston side and a sluice way to regulate the water level in the upstream basin. On the Cambridge side. A temporary wooden dam was built to close the center of the river, allowing for the construction of a permanent dam made of dirt and stone.

Jake:
[1:23] Despite facing challenges including turn of the century, Nimbyism. The dam was successfully completed by 1910. Its construction resulted in the creation of the Charles River basin, the esplanade and some of Boston’s most iconic sites for outdoor recreation.

Thank You to Our Supporters

Jake:
[1:41] But before we talk about the dam that created our modern Charles River basin, I just want to pause and say a big thank you to everyone who supports Hub History on Patreon. As you’ll soon hear this week’s episode uses a lot of news coverage from the Boston Globe and the Boston evening transcripts and newspaper databases are almost never free. Thanks to our generous sponsors, I can pay for research databases if you want to put together stories like this. But your support also pays for the basics podcast media hosting to deliver the audio RSS and MP3 files that enable you to hear the show, web hosting for the companion website, so I can share pics sources and other notes along with each episode, and basic equipment like mics and headphones that I used to record the show, to everyone who’s already supporting the show. Thank you. If you’re not yet a sponsor and you’d like to start, it’s easy. Just go to patreon.com/hub History or visit hubor.com and click on the support us link and thanks again to all our new and returning sponsors.

Celebrating the Momentous Closure

Jake:
[2:52] Now it’s time for this week’s main topic, the front page of the Boston evening transcript from October 20th, 1908 celebrated the moment when the temporary floodgates closed for the first time separating the waters of Boston Harbor from the brackish tidal salt marsh of the back bay. For the first time in history, the Charles river flow has stopped by the falling of a series of great shut off gates. The timber dam that has been under construction for weeks near Craigie Bridge was completed at exactly 11 o’clock this forenoon. And from now on the splendid river will be forced to confine itself to the locks and sluice ways practically at man’s behest instead of flowing at its own sweet will from Watertown to the sea.

Jake:
[3:41] In the months leading up to this point, an earthen dam had been built on both sides of the river with a lock that let boats through the dam on the Boston side and a sluice way to regulate the water level in the upstream basin on the Cambridge side. Now, a temporary wooden dam had been constructed to close the center of the river long enough to finish building the permanent dam out of dirt and stone. On that same day, the evening edition of the Boston Globe, which had taken an editorial position of steadfast support for the damming project described the massive framework of timber and pilings that made up the temporary dam. Governor Guild Mayor Hibbard, Mayor Wardwell of Cambridge and a large gathering witnessed the damning of the Charles River this morning preparatory to filling in the projected causeway between Boston and Cambridge. Joshua B Holden, a member of the Charles River Basin Commission at 11 a.m. Through the electric switch which released the 2300 pounds of Kate number 24 in the line of 82 frames and it plunged down to the bed of the river.

Jake:
[4:47] Immediately, 40 men with axes cut the ropes that held the remaining gates aloft and they dropped. Thus creating a solid dam across the river from the lock on the Boston side to the sluices on the Cambridge shore. The whistle on the temporary lock operating building was sounded and nim with axes climbed to the top of the wooden frames and stood ready to cut to the right and left and sever the ropes. Commissioner Holden with the habitual long black cigar between his lips stood at the Boston end of the huge framework that stretched across the river. There was another preparatory blast of the whistle and then a tooth that notified the men that the moment it arrived. Mister Holden threw on the current and a few seconds later, as the heavy gates dropped in groups, the whistles on the dereks dredgers and tow boats were sounded and the crowd cheered the accomplishment of the first spectacular demonstration of the progress of the engineering operations.

Jake:
[5:45] Workmen with wedges locked the gate solidly. And before the observers left, there was being unloaded from the lighters. The first filling to hold the dam steady. The Charles river is now closed to navigation excepting through the lock and the basin above the Craigie bridge location is now a body of water which may be maintained at any level. The engineers wish after wedging the gates at the top workmen prepared to saw off the timber frame above the gates. The upright should be cut off a few feet above the water so that the dredgers may distribute the filling on either side of the present dam to make the causeway.

The Need for Transformation

Jake:
[6:23] As anyone who’s seen, the Grand Canyon knows the power of moving water is hard to overcome. So the idea of a simple wood frame holding back the might of the Charles left some observers with trepidation with the temporary dam hold up long enough to allow the work on the permanent dam to be completed. The coverage in the Boston evening transcript which had been less supportive of the dam project up to that point continues skeptically. It may rebel before its bonds can be made permanent with steel and concrete. If it does, there may come a rending and rushing of timbers as the current plows through the temporary blockade that’s now intended to hold the current till the main dam can be completed. But as soon as the gates were down, every man treasure or digging machine that could be concentrated at the spot made all haste, a pile of mud and gravel against the timber wall that it might be reinforced rapidly enough to withstand the pressure that was sure to come against it later.

Jake:
[7:24] Now, let’s rewind a bit from this triumphant but risky moment to understand why Bostonians wanted to dam the lower Charles River in Back Bay. Imagine what it would have been like to stand at the shore at the foot of Boston common in the early 19th century. Standing near today’s Charles Street. Looking west low tide, you’d see miles of mud flats stretching out before you, winding channels meandered through the marsh and a spider web of hand dug ditches connected them remnants of early attempts to drain as much water out of the bay as possible to make it possible to cut salt hay in the summer. Early in Boston’s history, it was a place to dig clams and hunt ducks. And before the English colonized the chart peninsula, these winding channels hosted many fish weirs that provided an important food source to the Massachusetts people.

Jake:
[8:18] If that all sounds idyllic, it probably was as long as you don’t mind the smell of a salt marsh and given the cost of real estate in coastal places like Duxbury or Cohasset, plenty of people don’t mind.

Jake:
[8:34] The problem started with the industrial revolution and it was compounded by Boston’s growth over time, before environmental regulations, the Charles River was heavily industrial, just in the last few miles of the river below the Moody Street dam and the Waltham Watch factory, the river hosted a paint factory, a bleach factory, a tannery, a massive federal arsenal, a munitions factory in Watertown and an enormous slaughterhouse in Brighton. You can hear more about that slaughterhouse if you tune into episode 99 to learn more about Brighton’s history as a cow town, all these factories, stockyards and worse discharged raw industrial waste directly into the Charles River. Upstream communities thought nothing about this because the river’s current would carry away the most obvious evidence of contamination. However, the last few miles of the river were tidal below the dam at Watertown Square and flanked by Watertown, Brighton, Cambridge and Boston at low tide. All the debris and contaminants from those upstream factories were deposited on the shores of the narrow channels in the back Bay even worse was the sewage.

Jake:
[9:51] Before sewage treatment plants were constructed at Columbia Point, then Moon Island and now Deer Island. Every home and business in Boston was connected to a sewer that simply ran to the nearest body of water and dumped raw sewage into it. The shores of the South Bay and the back bay were said to be particularly offensive with 1/19 century city council report concluding, the back bay at this hour is nothing less than a great cesspool into which is daily deposited. All the filth of a large and constantly increasing population. Every west wind sends its pestilential exhalations across the entire city. A greenish scum many yards wide stretches along the shores. While the surface of the water beyond is seen bubbling like a cauldron with noxious gasses that are exploding from the corrupting mass below. Uh, gross.

Jake:
[10:53] Starting in 1821 a mile long dam was built along the line of today’s Beacon Street in an attempt to harness the power of the tides to drive mills that were clustered near today’s mass ave.

Jake:
[11:06] After that project failed, the dammed up area was filled in. Starting in 1859 the new land was up to a mile wide in places that still left an easy half mile of unfilled mud flats in the lower Charles River basin. I could talk about the back bay landfill project all day but I’ll try not to get distracted after that project failed. The dammed up area was filled in starting in 1859. By the turn of the 20th century, Boston was eager to solve the problem of the remaining mud flats and hopefully mask or eliminate the constant stench of raw sewage and industrial outflows.

Legislative Actions and Planning

Jake:
[11:48] And the most straightforward solution to the problem was to cover the flats with water damming. A navigable waterway required the Commonwealth’s approval. So the legislature appointed a commission to study the problem. On March 27th, 1901, the Harvard Crimson reported on a joint commission of the Massachusetts legislature made up of the Committee on Metropolitan Affairs and the committee on harbors and public lands. This joint commission was meant to weigh arguments for and against damming the Charles River basin. The first iteration of the plan they considered looked quite different from the basin we know today.

Jake:
[12:29] It is not intended for the new plan to change the salt basin of the back bay into a freshwater pond instead of an old style dam of rigid construction. The new plan suggests the erection of a folding or collapsible dam similar to dams which have been successfully operated in the Ohio river and the river Thames in England. The folding dams constructed by the United States government in the Ohio are so arranged that by simple mechanism, the whole structure can be laid flat below the level of the lower sill so that ice can pass out and the water flow unimpeded as if no dam existed, thus by emptying the basin and filling it again on the night tides, all the beauties of a lake can be obtained without changing to any appreciable extent. The present degree of saltiness of the water and the Back Bay basin proving that everything old is new. Again, the idea of a folding, a retractable dam is quite current again in 2024, cities from London to Venice have implemented retractable dams to protect the city against storm surges and sea level rise. While Boston has reportedly considered such a project to close the mouth of the harbor against rising tide.

Jake:
[13:48] Dutch are even considering two giant retractable dams to close off the entire North Sea before the rest of our polar ice melts in 1901. However, the technology wasn’t exactly up to that task. So a more conventional design was pursued.

Hearing Concerns and Criticism

Jake:
[14:06] Even a normal non retractable dam had its critics as reported in the Harvard Crimson again, as a side note, if you’re wondering why we have so many quotes from the Crimson this week. It’s because a so many engineers from Harvard were involved in the planning that the dam project was a hot topic on campus and B the Crimson has an extensive free online archive that’s easy to search. So anyway, on March 15th, 1902, the Crimson reported the final hearing on the Charles River dam was held yesterday morning. Doctor Henry J Barnes who appeared for the Tufts medical school said that if a permanent dam were constructed, the Finns Basin would become a stagnant pool and that sewage would collect there. And the absence of frequent Flushings, Lewis S Dabney representing the Beacon Street. Residents objected to the dam on the grounds that it would create a mill pond full of sewage with a sluggish river flowing into one end of it.

Jake:
[15:11] Notwithstanding these concerns, the legislature passed a bill creating a Charles River Basin Commission in 1903 charging them with the following. The commission shall construct across Charles River between the cities of Boston and Cambridge. A dam at least sufficiently high to hold back all tides and to maintain in the basin above the dam, a substantially permanent water level, not less than 8 ft above Boston base. The dam shall occupy substantially the site of the present Craigie Bridge which shall be removed by the commission. The dam shall not be less than 100 ft in width at said water level and a part thereof shall be a highway and the remainder shall be a highway or a park or parkway. As the commission shall determine the dam shall be furnished with a lock, not less than 350 ft in length between the gates, 40 ft in width and 13 ft in depth below Boston Base. And it shall be built with a suitable drawbridge or draw bridges, waste ways and other appliances.

Jake:
[16:19] Because we’ll hear this term a few more times. It’s important to note that Boston City base is a grade level that’s used for planning and surveying throughout the city. It refers to a 0.0 0.64 of a foot below the mean low tide level in Boston Harbor. The bill continues the part of the dam used as a highway shall be maintained and operated in the same manner as the Cambridge bridge and under the laws now or hereafter in force relating to SUD bridge.

Commission’s Responsibilities Defined

Jake:
[16:52] The commission shall dredge navigable channels in the basin from the lock to the wharves between the dam and the Cambridge Bridge to Broad Canal and to Lemere Canal, the channel to be not less than 100 ft in width and 18 ft in depth.

Jake:
[17:09] This new bill also enabled the new Basin Commission to address the complaints of Beacon Street abutters and Doctor Barnes of Tufts that the new basin would become just as choked with sewage as the existing tidal flats. The commission before the completion of the dam shall construct marginal conduits on the north side of the basin from the outlet of the overflow channel on Binny Street to a point below the dam. And on the south side of the basin, from the present outlet of the back bay fins to a point below the dam. The conduits to be used to receive and conduct below the dam. The overflow from sewers and the surface drainage and other refuse matter which would otherwise pass into the basin to translate that a bit margins of the edges. And a conduit is simply a sewer pipe. So a marginal conduit is a sewer running along the edges of the Back Bay neighborhood. All the existing sewer pipes that have been running directly into the muddy river and the fins or straight into the Charles would instead be intercepted by the new marginal conduit. This pipe would carry the raw sewage further into the harbor below the dam where it would still run into the harbor without any treatment. Boston would have to continue loving its dirty water until the modern Deer Island treatment plant came online. Finally in the year 2000.

The Engineering Challenges

Jake:
[18:37] By the end of September 19 03 engineers working for the basin commission had started taking samples of the glacial soils underlying the chosen location for the dam to make sure it would support the wooden pilings that would be used during construction. With the commission’s first annual report noting these borings are being made by the ordinary wash drill method. An outside pipe called the casing pipe is driven into the ground. The material inside the pipe is washed up by a jet of water forced by a hand pump through a smaller interior pipe known as the wash pipe to the bottom of the boring. The action of the water being assisted by a chisel pointed tool attached to the end of the watch pipe.

Jake:
[19:21] The action of the water being assisted by a chisel pointed tool attached to the end of the wash pipe, unwashed samples of the material through which the boring is made are taken about every 5 ft or whenever the material changes and are obtained by substituting for the cutting to at the end of the wash pipe. A short pipe with the lower end open which is driven into the bottom of the boring or in case the material will not adhere to the side of the pipe. A valve is provided at the lower end to close. When the pipe is lifted, these studies were crucial in developing the dam and basin because there are hundreds of feet of soft glacial soil and muddy harbor sediments underlying the city. In the Charles River, there was no chance to anchor construction footers to bedrock with the technologies of the day. So wood pilings were the next best solution throughout the back bay. The row houses churches, our public library and many other public institutions that were constructed in the late 19th century were built on top of spruce pilings.

Jake:
[20:27] Essentially, you’d cut all the branches off of a 30 to 40 ft spruce tree sharpen one end and then drive it down into the ground. The friction of the surrounding soil held the pile in place while retained groundwater, created an anaerobic environment that prevented the wood from rotting for a building like Trinity church or the main branch of the BPL. Hundreds of pilings were driven just a few feet apart. Then granite curbing was laid on top of them and the walls were built on top

Temporary Dam Construction

Jake:
[20:57] of that because of the lateral force of the water that a temporary dam would have to withstand. Oak was chosen as a material for the piles. And the Charles in the long run, granite and dirt would provide a solid foundation for the final dam, but they would also set atop wood pilings as described in the November 1907 edition of the Harvard Engineering Journal as the project was nearing completion, up to January 1st 1907, 9969 foundation piles have been driven in the Boston and Cambridge Coffer dams amounting to 297,000 linear feet. The average length of the piles under the lock after cutting off was 29 ft under the sluices, 31 ft four inches.

Jake:
[21:49] The specifications called for piles to be winter cut from straight live trees with not less than 10 inches in diameter at the butt when cut off in the work and not less than six inches in diameter. At the small end, a safe load of 12 tons per pile was assumed for the lock foundations and seven tons per pile at the sluices.

Jake:
[22:13] A retrospective on the project published in the November 1908 issue of the Harvard engineering journal notes that the temporary wooden dam was necessary due to the rapid flow of the tides in and out through the channel by Craigie’s bridge. As the tides changed, the current was too strong to allow earth dumped into the channel to stay there. Instead, the journal describes how the temporary dam was built to allow construction to continue. The body of the shut off dam is composed of six rows of round piles, cross braced running across the river. Six inch yellow pine sheeting was driven between the middle rows and cut off at elevation. 97 grade 100 being mean low water in Boston Harbor. Earth was filled in on both sides. The sheeting surrounded by rip wrap to elevation 97 placed so as to prevent scour, the driving of this piling was difficult because of the swift flow of the river but it was accomplished successfully.

Jake:
[23:17] There were 82 gates constructed which ran in grooves built on heavy uprights. The gates were of six by eight inch timber braced lengthwise and diagonally forming solid pieces. 10 ft wide by 15 ft high across the top of the uprights were placed timbers. The gates being held to these by ropes at a given signal, these ropes were cut and in seven seconds, all of the gates were in place.

Jake:
[23:46] We heard that part at the top of the show, rubber hose was nailed on the bottom edge of each gate that the joint between the gates and the sheep piling might be as close as possible. As soon as the river was closed, the uprights projecting above the round pilings were cut off and removed and re handlers and dredges began at once to pile the earth against the shut off. This filling is being continued so that the structure is really an earth dam with a wooden core wall. The dam when finished will consist of two concrete retaining walls faced with granite with an earth fill between the downstream or harbor wall will extend straight across the river. The upstream or basin wall turns inward so that the dam on the Cambridge end is not as wide as on the Boston end. A space has been left in it. So that dredges after filling in against the shut off dam as much as possible may pass out.

Jake:
[24:47] By the end of 1904, the plans for the dam were fully fleshed out and the November 29th edition of the Crimson reported the details of the contract that was being put out for bids.

Jake:
[24:59] The Charles River Basin Commission is advertised for bids on its contract for the dam which is to turn the Charles river into a freshwater basin unaffected by the tides. The dam will be built on the present side of the Craigie bridge and its total length will be 1300 ft. The width varying from 140 to 490 ft.

Jake:
[25:22] As a side note, the Craigie Bridge was originally built to carry boats from the Middlesex Canal over the Charles River. You can learn more about that in episode 225 the article continues, it will consist of two masonry retaining walls on pole foundations. The space between them being filled with earth to a depth of from 15 to 50 ft at the ends. The height of the dam will be 21 ft above mean low water about the present level of the street at the Cambridge end of the Craigie Bridge, on the lower side of the dam, there will be a roadway 85 ft wide and on the upper side, a parker embankment of six and three quarter acres. There will also be an esplanade constructed by the city of Boston, extending from Charles Bank Park to Charles Gate east making a drive and walks in the rear of Bremer and Beacon Streets, on the Cambridge side, an embankment park for which the land has already been purchased will come nearly to the dam. The contracts call for the completion of the work by July 1908.

Jake:
[26:35] The engineers of the commission have made the following calculations, earth excavation. 340,000 cubic yards filling 400,000 cubic yards, concrete masonry, 41,000 cubic yards, pilings 490,000 linear feet, pine lumber, 1.1 million ft, spruce lumber, 550,000 ft, rip wrap, 10,000 tons. There will be two locks in the dam. The larger being 350 ft in length and 45 ft wide and of sufficient depth to allow a vessel drawing 16 ft of water to pass through at low tide. The smaller lock will be suitable for launches and rowboats.

Jake:
[27:22] Eight sluices will be provided and in emergencies, the smaller lock will be used as a flood sluice for letting water out of the basin. There will be also outlets for marginal conduits through which all sewage outflow which now goes into the basin in times of heavy rainstorms will be carried down to the tide water. The dam will maintain a basin eight miles long and will affect the level of the water. As far as the dam at Watertown, there will be 17.5 miles of shoreline. Nearly all of which will be devoted to park purposes. The land having been purchased by the Metropolitan Parks Commission and the city of Cambridge, the level of the basin will be about 2 ft below the present mean high tide level.

The Roadway Above the Dam

Jake:
[28:09] Within months, the contractors were hired and work had started at the close of the first season of construction. The October 25th 1906 Crimson again reported on progress on the dam locks and on the crucial sewer conduit that would finally solve the smell problem in the Charles, work on the Charles River dam which was begun. March 1st 1905 has been continued without interruption during the summer, all the concrete work is practically finished and the sluices and small boat lock on the Cambridge side will be completed before the cold weather. The Boston marginal conduit through which all overflow from the sewers on stormy days will be carried down to the tide water instead of into the basin is as near completion as the rest of the work will permit, in the Broad and Lechmere Canals and in the basin, about 90% of the piles to support the wharves and walls have been driven and dredging in the basin just outside the entrance to the broad canal has been begun. A taking has recently been filed and work begun on the Boston embankment extending from the Cambridge bridge along the Boston shore as far as the southerly side of the back bay fence, construction work on section one of the embankment comprises 2700 linear feet of retaining wall and about the same length of earth embankment.

Jake:
[29:36] The commission will soon receive bids for the work on section two which is located back of Beacon Street along the wall south of the Cambridge bridge. The esplanade will vary in width from 180 to 300 ft and the portion in the rear of Beacon Street will be 100 ft wide. It will be made of excavations from the basin held in place by concrete masonry retaining walls faced with ashlar masonry on piles. The continuation of the Boston marginal Conduit will be built in this film along with the lock sluice way and sewage pipe. The new dam was also designed to carry a broad roadway to replace the Craigie Bridge which would allow streetcars to share lanes with teams of horses.

Jake:
[30:24] However, Boston didn’t yet have a unified transit system. So provisions also had to be made for the elevated railway. The January 17th, 1908 evening transcript describes the work on the new transit bridge that was being built to parallel the Charles river dam. Mild weather is helping to rush the work on the new elevated railway bridge. This to span the Charles river close to the downstream face of the new Charles river dam. Already the piling and a large portion of the concrete foundation work for four of the new bridge piers, two on either side of the river is far advanced.

Jake:
[31:04] The bridge is to be made of concrete stone and steel costing the neighborhood of $550,000 and it will take about three years to build. There will be 13 piers of stone carrying 12 large spans including a draw. Two of the central spans will be 100 60 ft long and the others will be 100 ft or a little more in length. According to the plans, the new bridge will be carried across the river at a height sufficient to allow any craft to pass under it which can at present pass under the new West Boston or Cambridge bridge as it’s now officially known. The draw in the new bridge will come just opposite to that at the lock in the dam. This bridge will tower above the dam but the plans call for an ornamental structure which the company is satisfied will not materially detract from the general beauty of the basin. The purpose of this bridge is to carry fast surface cars. The large semi convertible type from East Cambridge to the Boston subway running upon the L tracks from Lemere Square, East Cambridge across the river on this new bridge. And the proposed L in the west end to the subway at the north station. As was originally intended, the usual surface cars will go over the present route crossing the river by means at the top of the new dam.

Jake:
[32:30] Now that our transit system is unified under the M BT A this elegant bridge with its 12 ornamental arches still carries the green line tracks from Science Park to Lee Mere, by April 1908, the old Craigie bridge was being disassembled to make way for the dam to take its place. Eventually, the main roadway would be relocated from the Craigie bridge to the dam surface where we today drive past the Museum of Science. Luckily a temporary replacement bridge was already on hand to carry the Craigie’s traffic until the new road was completed. The second annual report of the Charles River basin Commission said, a fortunate solution to the problem was found when the officials of the Boston and Maine railroad considered to allow the commission to use the Boston and Lowell freight bridge next below the Craigie Bridge which under chapter 465 the Acts of 1903, the railroad is ordered to remove, by the construction of short approaches to bridge Street in Cambridge and Leverett Street in Boston. And some reconstruction of the railroad bridge, a better highway than the present Craigie bridge can be secured for traffic.

Construction Progress Updates

Jake:
[33:50] As the summer of 1908 came to a close. The construction of the dam was on track for completion by October 18th. That date was selected to take advantage of annual fluctuations in the tides for a few days. In late October, the tide in Boston Harbor falls to its lowest level of the year, about a foot lower than the lowest tide. Just a week later, that important deadline was called into question on October 12th, 1908 when the globe reported that the city of Cambridge was asking for a delay of two days to allow them to complete some waterfront projects before the waterfront rose to meet them.

Jake:
[34:33] According to the article, the work includes the removal of several 100 ft of old seawall near the Brookline Street bridge. The construction of a beach also of a new seawall near Western Avenue. The contractor has been diligent in carrying forward the work but at the present rate of progress, it cannot be completed by October 18th. Mayor Wardwell, acting on the advice of the Parks Commission has asked for the necessary delay. The commissioners replied that a delay would not be possible with the globe continuing. The principal danger it is said is in the lock since a portion of the river has been dammed, the water runs through the lock with the speed of a mill race, several small boats have been overturned in trying to make the passage. And in two or three instances, persons have narrowly escaped drowning.

Jake:
[35:31] This exact hazard had been warned about in the pages of the same paper just a few weeks before. On September 17th, the globe reported of late there has been quite a number of accidents. The new lock on the Charles River dam in which people have had to be pulled from the water by those working about the dam or lock. Unless the people of the city begin to realize the changed conditions in the river. At that point, only the construction of the dam there is bound to be more or less trouble in the future. Among the users of light river boats and canoes, one motor canoe now lies at the bottom of the river near the dam entrance and its occupants were rescued with some difficulty. Several larger boats have been swamped and a large number of others have been in grave danger there because of the fearful currents which swirl through the lock except at certain stages of the tide, between the lock and the Boston side of the river has been filled in and there is only a comparatively small and ever decreasing opening on the other or Cambridge side of this lock. The entire channel current passes through the lock and for an hour after or before flatter ebb tide, the current is strongest and rushes swirling through the lock entrances with fearful power.

Jake:
[36:52] Pleasure boat people rarely seem to realize its terrible strength and are caught in the current and their craft thrown against the lock entrance and nearly are quite swamped before they realize what’s happening. A half dozen or more boys have been fished out of the river there of late and as a large number of them play in the boats near that point, there is a constant danger that they will sooner or later meet with a serious accident.

Jake:
[37:17] Despite the danger to boaters, the commission agreed to a brief delay for Cambridge. But days later, a sand and gravel company that leased tidal flats near the dam sued to delay the closing to October 27th or beyond. The delay was meant to allow their case to go forward and might have led to a permanent injunction. But the SJC ruled that the Commonwealth’s right to all inter tidal lands, superseded the gravel company.

Jake:
[37:47] As you heard at the top of the episode, the giant wooden floodgates of the temporary dam came crashing shut on October 20th, 2 days behind the target date but still soon enough to take advantage of the lower tides, the work was far from over. However, with the next day’s Harvard Crimson reporting the flow of the Charles river was stopped yesterday by the closing of the dam. This has been under construction for several months near the Craigie bridge. The cutting off of the river channel is to allow the construction of the main section of the permanent dam and roadway. It will be fully a year from now before the completion of the entire work can be observed for after the dam is finished, a roadway 100 ft wide is to be built along its top, serving as a permanent substitute for the old Craigie bridge.

The Challenges of Closing the Dam

Jake:
[38:40] The shutting off of the water will benefit rowing conditions since the high water will increase the number of long stretches and there will be no apparent current.

Jake:
[38:51] And that year of construction that would follow or roadway would be built on top of the dam to replace the Craigie bridge and to replace the railroad bridge that was serving as a temporary alternative before construction had kicked off. There was a healthy debate about how this roadway should be constructed as designers had to balance a lower roadway that would require the drawbridge to open more often to let large boats through with a higher roadway that would require smaller loads of freight and wagons and carts to spare the teams of horses that had to haul them up to the bridge, with a higher roadway that would require smaller loads of freight and wagons and carts to spare the teams of horses that had to haul them up to the dam. The second annual report of the Charles River Basin Commission explains how they settled on a design that put the roadway and thus the final Earthen dam at 21 ft above Boston City base.

Jake:
[39:53] Studies were made of the relative advantages and disadvantages of a high and low grade dam. Considerable attention was given to records of past and present traffic through the draw of the Craigie Bridge showing the number of vessels that would and would not require the opening of the draw in a high grade dam, and the records of traffic over Craigie Warren and Charlestown bridges to determine the effect of a high grade bridge upon teeming, it was decided that the dam should be at a grade satisfactory for heavy teeming with approaches that would not make it necessary to reduce the size of loads which could be transported on the practically level streets in that vicinity. And that the amount of time lost by openings of the draw for tugs and massless vessels could be more than compensated for by increasing the width of the highway over that at present, existing particularly at the drawbridge.

Jake:
[40:50] If the point of building the dam was to flood the tidal mud flats along the banks of the Charles to keep the smell down. The project was not immediately successful. The floodgates of the temporary dam were closed on October 20th but on October 23rd, 1908, the globe reported, the Charles river dam which was closed Tuesday forenoon to keep out the tide water and make the new Charles river basin. A body of freshwater is to be opened within a day or two to admit the saltwater again for a while because of the slowness with which freshwater has come down the river to fill the basin. Since the closing of the gates. The prevailing drought is the cause of the failure of the basin to fill up to the desired height. Yesterday, 48 hours after the gates were closed, the water was still 3 ft lower than it ought to have been. And the river above the cottage farm bridge which we know is the bu bridge to day was so low that it was more or less unsightly and in places showed so much mud as to cause uneasiness to people living in the vicinity.

Jake:
[42:02] When enough rain has fallen to warrant it, the saltwater will be drained off and the basin allowed to fill up with fresh water till the depth of the water in the river is 2.5 ft less than it used to be at mean high water in the future. It’s proposed to keep the river at that reduced level on the day, the dam closed the Boston evening transcript reported on how a slowly rising water level in the Charles River basin would limit access above the upstream bridges that weren’t draw bridges as well as broader changes to the local landscape. Only massless vessels may pass through the big lock for points above Cambridge bridge, the next one upstream. But all sorts of sailing craft or barges may pass through for points along the Broad and Lechmere Canals leading inland to East Cambridge industrial plants and lumber yards from this lower section of the new Basin. The entrances to these canals have been rebuilt since the river improvement started and both canals have been deepened by dredging the entrance of Broad Canal. Close to the Cambridge end of the Cambridge bridge is of stone and masonry harmonizing with the new bridge itself and providing a terrace on which frequenters of the parkway may linger out of the way of the boatman to watch vessels make their way in or out.

Jake:
[43:24] The entrance of Lechmere Canal down near the sluice waste for the dam is crossed by a new roll lift steel bridge that will connect the New Commercial Avenue with Bridge Street, and also serve to some extent for access from the dam to the riverbank system of Parkways along the Cambridge side. A new playground and water park is now being slowly developed on the dump just above the Lechmere Canal entrance between Commercial Avenue and the main river. This will be a fair balance for the Charles Bank Park and Gymnasium on the Boston side. This will be a fair balance for the Charles Bank Park and Gymnasium on the Boston side opposite the upstream face of the dam will be a handsome park. The playgrounds and so called gymnasiums along the Charles Bank were some of the first playgrounds in the United States. You can hear more about how the women of Boston invented playgrounds in episode 111.

Jake:
[44:25] I think our listeners are probably familiar with locks, but you can listen to episode 225 about the Middlesex Canal. For more detail on a surface level, a canal lock is an enclosure with gates at either end and that a boat can enter while the water level inside is raised or lowered to meet the level of the water outside, the Charles river lock would raise a boat from the tidal harbor below the dam to the retained basin above the dam. The January 1907, Harvard engineering journal describes the law as it neared completion. The lock is constructed consists of a massive reinforced concrete structure with expansion joints placed on piles and includes the foundations for a Schertzer rolling lift bridge at the roadway, recesses into which the great steel lock gates are drawn. When the lock is opened. Bollards and electrically operated captains to aid vessels passing through the lock over the recesses. Houses are to be built of masonry to include living rooms for the superintendent and men. A boiler room, pumps to empty the lock when necessary, work, rooms, offices and an operating tower where an attendant by means of a switchboard may control the drawbridge, lock gates and lock filling gates.

Jake:
[45:48] Shortly after the lock system was completely operational, the Cambridge Tribune published a report on how it worked on April 9th 1910. This is kind of a long excerpt, but I appreciate the detailed description of the facilities and the operations of the lock. So try to bear with me for the operation of these parts of the dam. Considerable complicated machinery is necessary. All of which is housed in or controlled from the lower lock gatehouse. 30 men are employed.

Jake:
[46:23] The most interesting work is done in a room at the top of the tower surrounded by big bay windows from which there’s a clear view of all parts of the system. This is the eye of the dam. Three operators or electrical assistants each working an eight hour shift cover the 24 hours of day and night. Their tasks are various in multitudinous surrounded on all sides by a bewildering array of delicate electrical machinery. An operator sits at his desk close at hand are two telephones, one for the house, the other for outside communication, in front of him are several kinds of weather apparatus augmented by daily forecasts, et cetera. For an important part of his duty is to watch for sudden changes in the weather. A quick thaw or a strong westerly wind warns him that the water will pile up in the big basin and he must be ready to tap and draw off the surplus through the sluice ways. Toots from the whistle of a grimy little tow boat coming up through the railroad bridges with a tow, tell the operator that she wants to come through. He answers with his compressed air whistle, which also notifies the men who handle the gates of the draws.

Jake:
[47:42] The work of the ordinary drawbridge is doubled as the two leaves of the bridge and the lock have to be operated at the same time. If the lock happens to be at the level of the basin, the upper gate has to be closed. And the gates in the lower lock gate open to reduce the level of the lock to that of the outside lower level. All this is going on while the leaves of the drawbridge are opening so that there is no loss of time for the industrious little towboat in its char.

Jake:
[48:12] The most modern machinery for the quick handling of the draws in lock or in service. With the result that street traffic and river traffic are never delayed. More than three or four minutes, everything is electrically operated and controlled. The current being furnished by both the Edison Company and the Boston Elevated railroad company.

Jake:
[48:33] The operator throws in the necessary switches and walks over to work as controller which is very similar to that used by the motorman of a street car which is so placed near one of the windows that he can see what’s happening outside. Things invisible to him such as the filling gates and the lock gates are kept track of through the medium of telltale incandescent globes which show by their glow whether the gates are all right, there are sets of these globes for each set of gates. So located near the operator’s desk, they can readily see them at the time of working.

Jake:
[49:08] In addition, are gauges which indicate the height of the tide. A very necessary adjunct as it sometimes happens that the saltwater outside is higher than the basin and the gates and sluice ways must be controlled accordingly. The interiors of the gates are fitted with steam radiators to prevent freezing of the working parts and have compressed air lubricating devices. Inside also are air compartments and a system of air locks which permit men to enter them and to make repairs. Even while the gates are in use in the lower gate are six filling gates and in the upper gate, seven filling gates and then ice gate, which is approximately on a level with the basin and through which the broken ice is allowed to pass a tug being employed to break up the ice and keep the channel open. All the filling gates and the ice gate are operated from the tower.

Jake:
[50:04] In addition to the big lock which is 366 ft long and 45 ft wide. There is a small lock at the Cambridge end of the dam for power and small boats which is 55 ft long and 10 ft wide. Though the locks in the old Charles River dam are no longer functional. You can still see the gatehouse with its tower and copper wrap bay windows on the dam next to the channel of the old locks. It was appropriate that the building was eventually reused as an M DC police station because once the dam was complete, public attention shifted to making use of the new public land that was created by damming the Charles and filling in along the banks on the Boston side. Because Harvard is Harvard. A lot of the coverage in the Crimson focuses on the benefit to college rowing teams. The globe highlighted the Parkland that would be created along the new Charles Bank, and the December 9th, 1908 evening transcript reported on one congressman’s plan to moor the US S Constitution in the newly constructed freshwater basin.

Jake:
[51:13] One great obstacle lies in the way of that solution to the problem as to the final resting place of the old war vessel. It is the task of squeezing a ship that is 45 ft in width through seven drawbridges that are considerably less than 45 ft wide. Two of them measuring only 36 ft across then too. It is doubtful whether the ship could be forced through the Charles River Dam lock itself after it had been worked up through the drawbridges for that concrete structure is just 45 ft in width. If the old ship is swelled with age, if there happens to be any protuberances on her sides due to replaced plannings, even to the extent of an inch she could not be pulled through.

Jake:
[52:01] This wasn’t an entirely unfounded fear. While I was researching this episode, I stumbled across an article from October of 1907 about a schooner that got stuck in the old Craigie drawbridge. It took almost three hours and a chain hooked to a locomotive to drag the ship out besides improved rowing conditions for the Harvard crew team and the failed dream of towing old iron sides into the basin. The December 2nd 1909, Springfield Republican reported on preparations for another recreational use of the city’s new public waterway. The state fish and game commissioners last week stocked the Charles River basin with 11,000 fingerling trout and 3000 white perch fry to complete its transformation from tidewater to a freshwater lake. The commissioners will recommend to the next legislature that the basin be closed to fishing for a term of three years at the end of which they believe anglers will find excellent sport within the Boston city limits.

Jake:
[53:07] Within a few weeks of the article about stocking fish above the dam, the Charles River basin project was effectively complete on January 26th, 1910. The Boston Globe reported on the first street cart across the new dam.

Opening of the New Roadway

Jake:
[53:24] The first electric car across the Charles River dam passed over that structure at one yesterday afternoon while crowds shouted whistles tooted. And those who have taken part in the great work viewed the scene with delight and satisfaction. The new roadway on top of the dam finally opened to horse teams and pedestrians on January 27th, 1910. Other than some final landscaping, this was the last work to be completed on the project allowing the newly filled soil on the dam to settle before paving the new road. In the end, the entire project came at a cost to the taxpayer of $3.99 million in 19 $10. That is, I’ve come to kind of hate trying to convert historical currency to modern dollars, but that figure equates to something like 100 30 or 100 $40 million today, in exchange for not quite $4 million. The Charles River Basin Commission’s final report describes what the commonwealth got.

Jake:
[54:29] The commission is able to report that it has added nearly 35 acres of made land to the park area, established a constant water level in the basin, having an area of 800 acres, and covered up 100 75 acres of mud flats which were formerly exposed at low tide, a tidal estuary which was not exactly clean has been transformed into a freshwater basin. Thus securing permanent improvement of nearly 18 miles of shore dedicated almost entirely to public uses.

Jake:
[55:03] According to a 1910 article written by the Chair of the Metropolitan Parks Commission, the new dam was meant to be handed over to the N PC and then to the Metropolitan District Commission. Predecessor to the DC R starting in 1911, an M DC report titled Welcome to the Charles River dam describes how well the Charles river dam worked in meeting its original goals as well as why it was superseded by a new dam. A few decades later, the new river basin was set at 8 ft above low tide allowing about 6 to 8 hours at each tide for sluicing river discharge by gravity flow. Design of sluicing facilities was based on 10% in excess of flood flow records for a fresh end of February 1886 the largest recorded flood. Up to that time, the sluicing waterway area served adequately in controlling maximum basin levels in a range of elevation 109 to 100 10.2 until 1954. When hurricane Carol accompanied by heavy rain flooded Storrow Drive because of its low elevation of 100 9.5. A year later, hurricane Diane hit the Boston area with a 12 inch rainfall and the basin level reached 100 12.55. Basin. Flooding caused damage of nearly $6 million and estimated $24 million at today’s costs.

Jake:
[56:33] Lack of pumping was the big problem for floodwaters could not be released from the basin into the harbor when tides reach the basin level following extended controversy over the best remedy. Construction of a new $58.7 million dam was started in 1974 by the US Army Corps of Engineers. In conjunction with the Metropolitan District Commission.

The New Charles River Dam

Jake:
[56:56] It was completed in late 1979. The new Charles River dam is a multi-purpose dam using locks and sluice ways to control the elevation of the Charles River basin. The locks serve dual purposes. They pass boats between Boston Harbor and the Charles River basin, and they drain excess floodwaters from the basin into the harbor during flood conditions which occur when the basin level reaches two inches above the 108 constant maintained by the Metropolitan District Commission. The pumps at the New Charles River Dam have the pumping capacity to convey water at a rapid rate. Back into the harbor through discharge pipes or sluices.

Jake:
[57:40] Today, the Boston embankment that made up much of the 35 acres of newly made land is the esplanade and it provides some of the most iconic Boston views for visitors and recreation space for residents as well as hosting the fireworks and Boston pops concert each Independence Day.

Jake:
[58:00] The Museum of Science now occupies most of the dam itself. You can rent kayaks and paddle boards near Herder Park in Alston or Kindle Square in Cambridge or you can take sailing lessons at community boating. Just steps from the Charles MGHT stop. Eight miles of perfectly flat water lead upstream to Watertown Square with college and public boat houses along the banks and a network of multi use paths leading all the way to Waltham.

Legacy and Impact on Boston

Jake:
[58:30] I’d say we got our $4 million worth to learn more about the Charles River Damon basin. Check out this week’s show notes at hubor.com/three 11, I’ll have lots of sources for you to browse this week including the Charles River Basin Commission’s annual reports for 1903 to 1910, which include pictures and way more details of the project’s design and execution than I could pack into this. Episode. I also linked to a few articles about the project from the 1907 and 1908, Harvard Engineering Journal, as well as a 1910 article by the Chairman of the Metropolitan Parks Commission outlining the state of N PC Parks as the basin project concluded.

Jake:
[59:15] I’ll give you links to news coverage from the Boston Globe and evening transcript and from the Springfield Republican. Plus, we’ll have some good public domain photos of the project, especially the ceremonial closing of the Temporary Dam on October 20th 1908.

Jake:
[59:33] If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email podcast at hor.com. We’re Hub history on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and most active on Twitter. If you’re on Mastodon, you can find me as at hub history at better dot Boston, or just go to hubor.com and click on the contact us link while you’re on the site, hit the subscribe link and be sure that you never miss an episode. If you subscribe on Apple podcasts, please consider writing us a brief review. If you do drop us a line and we’ll send you a hub history sticker as a token of appreciation.

Jake:
[1:00:14] That’s all for now. Stay safe out there listeners.