Boston has grown up around
Boston Common
, which was set aside as public land in 1634. The obvious first stop on any tour of the city, it is also one of the gems in the string of nine parks (six of which were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, America's foremost landscape architect) known as Boston's
Emerald Necklace
. Another gem is the lovely
Public Garden
, across Charles Street, where the two-ton
swan boats
($1.50), which paddle across the main pond, are a less-than-natural, though whimsical, focal point.
The
visitor center
- the start of the
Freedom Trail
- is near the tapering north end of the Common. As you stand here, facing up Tremont Street with the
State House
away to your left, the main
shopping
district,
Quincy Market
, and the
waterfront
are slightly ahead and down to the right. The modern concrete wasteland of
Government Center
is straight up Tremont Street, with the
North End
beyond - first Irish, then Jewish, and now very definitely Italian. A short way behind you on the left rises
Beacon Hill
, every bit as elegant as when Henry James called Mount Vernon Street "the most prestigious address in America" (and far removed from its eighteenth-century nickname of "Mount Whoredom"). Heading away from the center down Tremont Street brings you to
Chinatown
and the
Theater District
, while grand boulevards such as Commonwealth Avenue lead west from the Public Garden into the
Back Bay
, where Harvard Bridge runs across the Charles River into
Cambridge
.
