Railroads and Other Transportation
By 1871, the Dorchester Avenue Railroad ran along Atlantic Avenue south of Broad Street (still called Broad Street at the time) as part of its route between downtown and Dorchester. However, 1872 and 1874 maps show these tracks removed in favor of tracks along Beach Street. An 1888 map appears to show tracks again, along the full length of Atlantic Avenue (ending at the Commercial Street merge), and an 1897 map shows tracks not only on all of Atlantic Avenue but also on Commercial Street towards North Station.
In 1872, the Union Freight Railroad was built along Atlantic Avenue, connecting freight lines on both sides of downtown. It was removed in 1970. The 1899 extension of Atlantic Avenue also resulted in a realignment of the railroad.
From 1901 to 1938 (torn down in the early 1940s), the Atlantic Avenue Elevated carried passengers above Atlantic Avenue north of Beach Street.
By 1925, all streetcar tracks had been removed from the central part of downtown, and tracks along Atlantic Avenue north of Summer Street (Dewey Square) took streetcars around downtown. These too were gone by 1953.
Buses on the 6 South Station - Haymarket Station via North End route now use the full length of Atlantic Avenue (northbound only along the Big Dig).
None of Atlantic Avenue has ever been part of a numbered state, U.S. or Interstate route.
Read more about this topic: Atlantic Avenue (Boston)
Famous quotes containing the word railroads:
“We noticed several other sandy tracts in our voyage; and the course of the Merrimack can be traced from the nearest mountain by its yellow sand-banks, though the river itself is for the most part invisible. Lawsuits, as we hear, have in some cases grown out of these causes. Railroads have been made through certain irritable districts, breaking their sod, and so have set the sand to blowing, till it has converted fertile farms into deserts, and the company has had to pay the damages.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)