Route
The only changes from the original route to the present day have been at Newton Upper Falls. The original alignment was rather circuitous, looping north of Eliot Street on High, Summer and Chestnut Streets, presumably to avoid steep grades. An alignment in the mid-1970s used a one-way pair, with the northbound direction looping south of Eliot Street. It now uses the old northbound side (Oak and Chestnut Streets) in both directions, the opposite of the original route.
Until April 1981, the route only went north from Needham Center; it was extended at that time to Needham Junction. 59A Needham Street-Watertown Square was added in December 1984, running Watertown to Newton Highlands and splitting there onto its own alignment to the Needham Industrial Park. 59A service was merged into 59 in December 1989, with alternate weekday trips using the 59A alignment (and continuing to Newton Junction).
The branch to Newton Centre split from the main route (on Walnut Street), heading east on Homer Street. It turned south on Centre Street, southeast on Willow Street, south on Sumner Street, and west on Beacon Street, ending at Centre Street.
Read more about this topic: Newton And Boston Street Railway
Famous quotes containing the word route:
“A route differs from a road not only because it is solely intended for vehicles, but also because it is merely a line that connects one point with another. A route has no meaning in itself; its meaning derives entirely from the two points that it connects. A road is a tribute to space. Every stretch of road has meaning in itself and invites us to stop. A route is the triumphant devaluation of space, which thanks to it has been reduced to a mere obstacle to human movement and a waste of time.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“A Route of Evanescence
With a revolving Wheel—”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
“By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an eidolon, named Night,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule—
From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of space—out of time.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)