Shawmut Peninsula

Coordinates: 42°21′28″N 71°03′34″W / 42.35778°N 71.05944°W / 42.35778; -71.05944
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This diagram shows the original dimension of the Shawmut Peninsula. The gray areas marked with the words "New Boston" are all land reclaimed during the 19th century.
Map of Shawmut Peninsula from 1775 showing tactical positions from the perspective of the British Army

Shawmut Peninsula is the promontory of land on which Boston, Massachusetts was built. The peninsula, originally a mere 789 acres (3.19 km2) in area,[1] more than doubled in size due to land reclamation efforts that were a feature of the history of Boston throughout the 19th century.

Geology and original topography

Like much of the

moraine deposits left by retreating glaciers at the end of the last ice age.[1] When Europeans arrived, Shawmut was thickly forested.[1] The pre-settlement topography of the peninsula was marked by three hills: Copps Hill, in what is now the North End; Fort Hill, in today's Financial District; and the Trimountain, today's Beacon Hill district. Of the three hills, the Trimountain was by far the largest, a steep-sided mass with three summits. Its name was eventually shortened to Tremont. To the south was a narrow isthmus named Boston Neck that connected the peninsula to the mainland site of Roxbury, now a neighborhood of Boston.[citation needed
]

English settlement

The name is derived from

Beacon Hill.[3]

Land reclamation

Reclamation projects began in 1820 and continued intermittently until 1900 and created the Boston neighborhoods of the

freshwater urban wild in the latter area, is a remnant of the salt marshes
that once surrounded Shawmut Peninsula.

Although this project eliminated the

tidal flats that had become polluted with sewage. Secondly, it created what is now some of the most valuable real estate in New England. [citation needed
]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Miller, Bradford A., "Digging up Boston: The Big Dig Builds on Centuries of Geological Engineering", GeoTimes, October 2002.
  2. ^ Horsford, Eben Norton, The Indian Names of Boston, and their Meaning, John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, MA, University Press, 1886.
  3. ^ Shurtleff, Nathaniel B., A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston, printed by request of Boston City Council, Boston, 1871.

External links

42°21′28″N 71°03′34″W / 42.35778°N 71.05944°W / 42.35778; -71.05944

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