Fort Point Channel

Fort Point Channel is a maritime channel adjacent to Boston, Massachusetts. The channel separates South Boston from Downtown Boston and feeds into Boston Harbor. The channel is surrounded by the Fort Point neighborhood, which is also named after the same colonial-era fort.

The south part of Fort Point Channel has been gradually filled in for use by the

The chief engineer of the Boston Water and Sewer Commission has proposed a stormwater barrier as part of the replacement for the now-closed Northern Avenue Bridge. Fort Point Channel drains a large portion of Downtown Boston, South Boston, and Dorchester.^[1][2]

The following bridges and tunnels cross or used to cross the channel, from north to south, with building/opening dates:

• Northern Avenue Bridge (built 1908, closed to vehicles in 1997, closed to pedestrians in 2014)
• Evelyn Moakley Bridge (1996, New Northern Avenue/Seaport Boulevard)
• Silver Line tunnel, 2004
• Congress Street Bridge, 1930 (replaced an 1874-built swing bridge at same location)^[3]
• Summer Street Bridge, 1899
  • Previously at this location:
    Boston and Providence
    terminal in Park Square during construction of South Station which opened in 1899)
• Red Line tunnel, 1917, which runs along the length of the channel south from Summer Street^[4] (see 1925 map)
• Mount Washington Avenue Bridge (gone, Mount Washington Ave now enters the Gillette plant)
• I-90
  )
• Dorchester Avenue Bridge, 1925 (formerly Federal Street Bridge)
• Atlantic Avenue Viaduct
  (1899–1923)
• MBTA Commuter Rail bridge, fixed span constructed in 1988. It is used by four MBTA Commuter Rail lines (Fairmount Line, Fall River/New Bedford, Kingston Line, Greenbush Line), as well as for non-revenue MBTA and Amtrak trains to access Southampton Street Yard. Previously at this location:^[5]
  • Six-track, three span Rolling Lift Bridge constructed 1898–1900 to provide combined connection to the new South Station for the Old Colony Railroad and New York and New England Railroad (via Fairmount). By the time of completion, these railroads had merged into the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Remnants memorialized in Rolling Bridge Park, at the same location.
  • Original bridge for the Old Colony Railroad, demolished in 1910 (on the site of the 1988 bridge).
• Broadway Bridge (relocated, new bridge opened January 19, 1999)

The channel now ends here; the remaining bridges cross the South Bay Yard or Fairmount Line.

• West Fourth Street Bridge, 1958 (formerly Dover Street, with an older bridge)
• South Boston Bypass Road (opened in 1993 as part of the Big Dig going east from I-93; follows depressed NY&NE corridor, now Track 61^[6])
• New York and New England Railroad on a long diagonal bridge, now used by the MBTA Commuter Rail and trains to the South Boston Freight Terminal - this bridge passed under the next two
• Southampton Street (formerly Swett Street)
• Massachusetts Avenue
  (formerly East Chester Park)

• Children's Wharf, formerly known as Museum Wharf
• Fort Point Channel Historic District, added to NRHP in 2004
• Summer Street Bridge disaster, which occurred on November 7, 1916

• Fort Point Channel Watersheet Activation Plan at cityofboston.gov via Wayback Machine
• City of Boston's free walking tour of Fort Point at bostonharborwalk.com via Wayback Machine

• Friends of Fort Point Channel
• Fort Point Pier

42°21′00″N 71°03′10″W / 42.3499°N 71.0527°W / 42.3499; -71.0527