Boston Harbor
Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a shipping facility in the northeastern United States. Since its discovery to Europeans by John Smith in 1614, Boston Harbor has been an important port in American history and it was the site of the Boston Tea Party as well as almost continuous backfilling of the harbor until the 19th century. By 1660 almost all came to the greater Boston area. A rapid influx of people transformed Boston into a booming city, the health of the harbor quickly decreased as the population of Boston increased. As early as the late 19th century Boston citizens were advised not to swim in any portion of the Harbor, in the 19th century two of the first steam sewage stations were built. With these mandates the harbor was seeing small improvements, but raw sewage was still continuously pumped into the harbor, in 1919 the Metropolitan District Commission was created to oversee and regulate the quality of harbor water.
However, not much improvement was seen and general awareness of the poor quality of water was very low. In 1972 the Clean Water Act was passed in order to promote increased national water quality. Boston did not receive a clean water act waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency, since the mid-1970s organizations within the Boston community have battled for a cleaner Boston Harbor. More recently, the harbor was the site of the $4.5 billion Boston Harbor Project, failures at the Nut Island sewage treatment plant in Quincy and the companion Deer Island plant adjacent to Winthrop had far-reaching environmental and political effects. Fecal coliform bacteria levels forced frequent swimming prohibitions along the harbor beaches and that suit was followed by one by the Conservation Law Foundation and finally by the United States government, resulting in the landmark court-ordered cleanup of Boston Harbor. The court ordered cleanup continued throughout the two decades and is still ongoing. Before the cleanup projects, the water was so polluted that The Standells released a song in 1966 called Dirty Water about the state of the Charles River.
The song is popular with Red Sox fans and is played regularly at Fenway Park whenever the Red Sox win a game. Neal Stephenson, who attended Boston University from 1977 to 1981, based his novel, Zodiac. Boston Harbor is a harbor which constitutes the western extremity of Massachusetts Bay. The harbor is often described as being split into an inner harbor, the harbor itself comprises fifty square miles with 180 miles of shoreline and 34 harbor islands
Department of Conservation and Recreation
The Department of Conservation and Recreation is a state agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, situated in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. It is best known for its parks and parkways, as of December 9,2015, the Commissioner of the DCR is Leo Roy. The DCRs mission is To protect and enhance our common wealth of natural and recreational resources for the well-being of all, the agency is the largest landowner in Massachusetts. Ownership and management for many nonpedestrian bridges was transferred to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation in 2009, the DCR is under the general management of the Commissioner of the DCR. The general administration divisions, Human Resources Division, the Financial Division and these areas are designated as either Woodlands, Parklands, or Reserves, and are managed to maintain specific land-use characteristics. From the agencys beginning in 2003 until 2012, DCR land management was organized into three divisions, State Parks and Recreation, Urban Parks and Recreation, and Water Supply Protection, in 2012, State Parks and Urban Parks were unified into one division.
This division monitors lakes and ponds, well drillers, and rainfall throughout the Commonwealth, list of Massachusetts Protected Water Supply Areas The Bureau of Engineering provides professional engineering and construction management services in support of DCR properties. All non-pedestrian bridges were transferred to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation on November 1,2009 as part of a transportation reform law, originally, a certain number of bridges listed in the act creating MassDOT were to be transferred after December 31,2014 when ongoing construction was completed. However, a Memorandum of Agreement between DCR and MassDOT instead transferred these bridges in 2009 along with all other DCR vehicular bridges, DCR manages its land through the help of partners. Road repairs are sometimes implemented by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation at the request of DCR, Police protection has been provided by the Massachusetts State Police after the MDCs police department was merged into the State Police in 1992.
List of numbered routes in Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation website Roadways under the purview of DCR
Prince Hall
Prince Hall was an African American noted as an abolitionist for his leadership in the free black community in Boston and as the founder of Prince Hall Freemasonry. He lobbied for education rights for children and was active in the back-to-Africa movement. Hall tried to gain New England’s enslaved and free blacks a place in Freemasonry and the military, Hall is considered the founder of “Black Freemasonry” in the United States, known today as Prince Hall Freemasonry. Hall formed the African Grand Lodge of North America, Prince Hall was unanimously elected its Grand Master and served until his death in 1807. There is confusion about his year of birth, place of birth, Prince Hall was born between 1735 and 1738. His place of birth and parents are unclear, the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, in its Proceedings of 1906, opted for 1738, relying on a letter from Reverend Jeremy Belknap, a founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Prince Halls birthday is celebrated on September 14.
Historian Charles H. Wesley theorized that by age 11 Prince Hall was enslaved to Boston tanner William Hall and it was through William Hall that Prince learned how to process and dress leather. Inside Prince Hall author and historian David L. Gray states that he was unable to find a historical record of the manumission. Hall, identified as able to read and write, may have been self-taught or, like other enslaved people and free blacks in New England, Hall joined the Congregational Church in 1762 at 27 years of age. He married a woman named Sarah Ritchie who died in 1769. Hall married Flora Gibbs of Gloucester in 1770 David Gray, states he was married for a time to Sylvia Ward Hall. An article about Prince for Africans in America by PBS states that Prince Hall married a woman named Delia, a servant outside William Halls household, in Boston, Hall worked as a peddler and leatherworker, owning his own leather shop. In April 1777, he created five leather drumheads for a regiment of Boston. Hall was a homeowner who voted and paid taxes, Hall encouraged enslaved and freed blacks to serve the American colonial military.
He believed that if blacks were involved in the founding of the new nation, Hall proposed that the Massachusetts Committee of Safety allow blacks to join the military. He and fellow supporters petition compared Britain’s colonial rule with the enslavement of blacks, England issued a proclamation that guaranteed freedom to blacks who enlisted in the British army. Once the British Army filled its ranks with troops, the Continental Army reversed its decision
Charles River Reservation
The Charles River Reservation is a 17-mile-long urban preserve and public recreation area located along the banks of the Charles River in Boston, Cambridge and Newton, Massachusetts. The reservation is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the portion of the reservation between the Charles River Dam and the Eliot Bridge is listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. The Charles River above the Watertown Dam is managed as the Upper Charles River Reservation, features of the reservation include the Charles River Dam, the Charles River Basin, the Boston and Cambridge Esplanades, and John F. Kennedy Park. The 1978 Charles River Dam, located behind the TD Garden, an earlier dam, located beneath the Museum of Science, was completed in 1910 with the purpose of creating a fresh water river basin and riverfront park in Boston and Cambridge. As part of the dam construction, fill was added between the Longfellow Bridge and Charlesgate and dedicated as the Boston Embankment, now known as the Esplanade.
The modern dam houses six pumps that provide flood control protection, the dams lock system permits travel of recreational and commercial vessels from the river to the harbor year round. A fish passage allows for passage of fish during the migration season in late spring. Water quality in the heavily polluted Basin has improved dramatically in recent years, creating better habitat for wildlife. The character of the Basin changes along this 8, the Lower Basin is 2.5 miles long and up to 2,000 feet wide. The panoramas in the Lower Basin define the image of Boston, the Longfellow Bridge is a powerful presence in the Lower Basin, as are the slope of Beacon Hill and the gold dome of the State House. Particular park sections within the reservation, such as Magazine Beach and Herter Park, the Middle Basin is a zone of transition from urban and formal to rural and more natural. Parkways lining the Charles River Basin separate the esplanades in Boston, the largest open space is between the Harvard University athletic fields on the south and Mount Auburn and Cambridge cemeteries on the north.
Together, these form a critical oasis for migrating birds. Frederick Law Olmsteds 1889 design for Charlesbank created the first public space along the river, the 5-acre John F. Kennedy Park located near Harvard Square is landscaped with plants that bloom at the time of the Presidents May birthday and a memorial fountain. The park, designed by Carol R. Riverbend Park extends on the side of the Charles. In 1974 Isabella Halsted circulated a letter asking if neighbors would support closing the Drive to vehicles on Sundays from spring to fall and she may have been familiar with the closing of sections of Rock Creek Parkway in Washington, D. C. A portion of the drive was blocked off for the first time the following year, for nine years, the private Trust for Riverbend Park raised funds to cover the cost of the road closing. In 1985 the state authorized and funded the permanent closing of the road from April to November
Land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and known as land fill, is the process of creating new land from ocean, riverbeds, or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as ground or land fill. In a number of jurisdictions, including parts of the United States. In Alberta, for example, reclamation is defined by the government as The process of reconverting disturbed land to its former or other productive uses. In Oceania it is referred to as land rehabilitation. Land reclamation can be achieved with a number of different methods, the most simple method involves simply filling the area with large amounts of heavy rock and/or cement, filling with clay and dirt until the desired height is reached. The process is called infilling and the used to fill the space is generically called infill. Draining of submerged wetlands is often used to land for agricultural use. Deep cement mixing is used typically in situations in which the material displaced by either dredging or draining may be contaminated, the creation of new land was for the need of human activities.
Notable examples include, Much of the coastlines of Mumbai, India and it took over 150 years to join the original seven islands of Mumbai. Much of the coastlines of Mainland China, Hong Kong, North Korea and it is estimated that nearly 65% of tidal flats around the Yellow Sea have been reclaimed. Inland lowlands in the Yangtze valley, including the areas of important cities like Shanghai, Much of the coastline of Karachi, Pakistan. A part of the Hamad International Airport in Qatar, around 36 square kilometres, the entire island of The Pearl-Qatar situated in West Bay, Qatar. The city-state of Singapore, where land is in supply, is famous for its efforts on land reclamation. The Palm Islands, The World and hotel Burj al-Arab off Dubai in the United Arab Emirates The Yas Island in Abu Dhabi and it is one of the six divisions of Malé City. The Eko Atlantic in Lagos, mexico City, the chinampas are a famous example. Parts of Panama City urban and street development are based on reclaimed land, aeroparque Jorge Newbery, in Buenos Aires, Argentina One of the earliest large scale projects was the Beemster Polder in the Netherlands, realized in 1612 adding 70 square kilometres of land.
In Hong Kong the Praya Reclamation Scheme added 20 to 24 hectares of land in 1890 during the phase of construction
Rumney Marsh Reservation
Rumney Marsh Reservation is a Massachusetts state park occupying over 600 acres in the town of Saugus and city of Revere. The salt marsh is located within the Saugus and Pines River estuary and provides habitat for many different migratory birds, the park is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. Visitors can partake in birdwatching, non-motorized boating, walking, rumney Marsh Reservation Department of Conservation and Recreation
Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston
Direct design and maintenance functions for the parkways and roads within the system are provided by the DCR Bureau of Engineering. In addition, parks focusing on history are located in Lynn. Eliot had apprenticed with Frederick Law Olmsted and assumed leadership of Olmsteds design firm in 1893, Olmsted had been responsible for the development of Central Park in Manhattan and with Eliot had worked to create Bostons Emerald Necklace, a string of connected parks and waterways. The original Metropolitan Park Commission appointed by the legislature in 1892 consisted of Charles Francis Adams and William B. de las Casas. The commission hired Baxter to serve as secretary and Eliot as landscape architect, the first five areas acquired by the commission for the system in 1893 were the Beaver Brook, Blue Hills, Hemlock Gorge, Middlesex Fells and Stony Brook Reservations. In 1919, the commission was renamed the Metropolitan District Commission after merging with the Metropolitan Water and Sewer Commission, through the next 80 years the MDC became increasingly politicized and known as a haven for political patronage.
That suit was followed by one by the Conservation Law Foundation and finally by the United States Government, the situation resulted in calls for the dismantlement of the MDC, which was realized when the MDC was dissolved by legislation in 2003. The Metropolitan Park System and other operations of the MDC were merged with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management to form the current Department of Conservation and Recreation
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its resources. The organization has four science disciplines, concerning biology, geology. The USGS is a research organization with no regulatory responsibility. The USGS is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior, the USGS employs approximately 8,670 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The USGS has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, the current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is science for a changing world. The agencys previous slogan, adopted on the occasion of its anniversary, was Earth Science in the Public Service. Prompted by a report from the National Academy of Sciences, the USGS was created, by a last-minute amendment and it was charged with the classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain.
This task was driven by the need to inventory the vast lands added to the United States by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the legislation provided that the Hayden and Wheeler surveys be discontinued as of June 30,1879. Clarence King, the first director of USGS, assembled the new organization from disparate regional survey agencies, after a short tenure, King was succeeded in the directors chair by John Wesley Powell. Administratively, it is divided into a Headquarters unit and six Regional Units, Other specific programs include, Earthquake Hazards Program monitors earthquake activity worldwide. The National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines detects the location, the USGS runs or supports several regional monitoring networks in the United States under the umbrella of the Advanced National Seismic System. The USGS informs authorities, emergency responders, the media, and it maintains long-term archives of earthquake data for scientific and engineering research.
It conducts and supports research on long-term seismic hazards, USGS has released the UCERF California earthquake forecast. The USGS National Geomagnetism Program monitors the magnetic field at magnetic observatories and distributes magnetometer data in real time, the USGS operates the streamgaging network for the United States, with over 7400 streamgages. Real-time streamflow data are available online, since 1962, the Astrogeology Research Program has been involved in global and planetary exploration and mapping. USGS operates a number of related programs, notably the National Streamflow Information Program. USGS Water data is available from their National Water Information System database
State park
State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use state as a political subdivision. State parks are established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural beauty, historic interest. There are state parks under the administration of the government of each U. S. state, some of the Mexican states, the term is used in the Australian state of Victoria. The equivalent term used in Canada, South Africa, similar systems of local government maintained parks exist in other countries, but the terminology varies. State parks are thus similar to parks, but under state rather than federal administration. Similarly, local government entities below state level may maintain parks, in general, state parks are smaller than national parks, with a few exceptions such as the Adirondack Park in New York and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California. As of 2014, there were 10,234 state park units in the United States, there are some 739 million annual visits to the countrys state parks.
The NASPD further counts over 43,000 miles of trail,217,367 campsites, many states include designations beyond state park in their state parks systems. Other designations might be state recreation areas, state beaches, some state park systems include long-distance trails and historic sites. The title of oldest state park in the United States is claimed by Niagara Falls State Park in New York, however several public parks previously or currently maintained at the state level pre-date it. Indian Springs State Park has been operated continuously by the state of Georgia as a park since 1825. In 1864 Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove were ceded by the government to California until Yosemite National Park was proclaimed in 1890. In 1878 Wisconsin set aside a vast swath of its forests as The State Park but, needing money. The first state park with the designation of state park was Mackinac Island State Park in 1895, list of U. S. state parks National Association of State Park Directors Wilderness preservation systems in the United States Ahlgren, Carol.
The Civilian Conservation Corps and Wisconsin State Park Development, the State Park Movement in America, A Critical Review excerpt and text search Larson, Zeb. Silver Falls State Park and the Early Environmental Movement, oregon Historical Quarterly 112#1 pp, 34-57 in JSTOR Newton, Norman T. When Forests Trumped Parks, The Maryland Experience, 1906-1950, Maryland Historical Magazine 101#2 pp, 203-224
Marshfield, Massachusetts
Marshfield is a town in Plymouth County, United States, on Massachusettss South Shore. The population was 25,132 at the 2010 census, see also, Green Harbor, Marshfield Hills, and Ocean Bluff-Brant Rock. Marshfield is located on the South Shore, about where Cape Cod Bay meets Massachusetts Bay, according to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 31.74 square miles. 28.46 square miles of it is land and 3.28 square miles of it is water. Marshfield is bordered by Massachusetts Bay to the east, Duxbury to the south and southeast, Pembroke to the west, Norwell to the northwest, Marshfield is 18 miles east of Brockton and 29 miles southeast of Boston. Marshfield is named for the salt marshes which border the salt. There are three rivers, the North and the Green Harbor River, the South River divides a peninsula from the rest of the town, where Rexhame village and the Humarock and Fourth Cliff neighborhoods of the town of Scituate lie. The Scituate neighborhoods can be reached by land by two bridges, by boat, or by foot along Rexhame Beach, the Rexhame-Humarock peninsula is a barrier beach with an 84-foot-high moraine, one of only two barrier beach moraines on the east coast of the United States.
The town of Marshfield has six separate zip codes, Brant Rock, Ocean Bluff, North Marshfield, Marshfield Hills, and Green Harbor. There are eight villages in the town, Marshfield Center, Ocean Bluff, Brant Rock, Green Harbor, Marshfield Hills, and North Marshfield. The following beaches comprise Marshfields 5-mile-long public seashore, Fieldston, Ocean Bluff, Brant Rock, Blackmans Point, Blue Fish Cove, Marshfield is a popular summer beach destination. Tourists and vacationers cause the population to nearly double from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend. Only full-time residents can vote on tax matters. As of the census of 2000, there were 24,324 people,8,905 households, the population density was 854.8 people per square mile. There were 9,954 housing units at a density of 349.8 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 92. 69% White,3. 54% Black or African American,0. 11% Native American,0. 37% Asian,0. 02% Pacific Islander,0. 52% from other races, and 0. 76% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2. 67% of the population,20. 9% of all households were made up of individuals and 7. 2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
The average household size was 2.73 and the family size was 3.20
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and he is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the countrys earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a difficult life. Poe was born in Boston, the child of two actors. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year, thus orphaned, the child was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They never formally adopted him, but Poe was with them well into young adulthood, tension developed as John Allan and Edgar repeatedly clashed over debts, including those incurred by gambling, and the cost of secondary education for the young man.
Poe attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money, Poe quarreled with Allan over the funds for his education and enlisted in the Army in 1827 under an assumed name. It was at time that his publishing career began, albeit humbly, with the anonymous collection of poems Tamerlane and Other Poems. With the death of Frances Allan in 1829, Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement, Poe failed as an officer cadet at West Point, declaring a firm wish to be a poet and writer, and he ultimately parted ways with John Allan. Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the several years working for literary journals and periodicals. His work forced him to move among several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, in Richmond in 1836, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845, Poe published his poem The Raven to instant success and his wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. For years, he had been planning to produce his own journal The Penn and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields such as cosmology and cryptography.
Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, films, a number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre. He was born Edgar Poe in Boston on January 19,1809 and he had an elder brother William Henry Leonard Poe, and a younger sister Rosalie Poe. Their grandfather David Poe Sr. had emigrated from Cavan, Ireland to America around the year 1750, Edgar may have been named after a character in William Shakespeares King Lear, a play that the couple were performing in 1809
.jpg)
