Watertown Square | |
---|---|
Neighborhood and road intersection | |
Coordinates: 42°21′55″N71°11′04″W / 42.3652°N 71.1844°W | |
State | Massachusetts |
County | Middlesex |
City | Watertown |
Watertown Square is a neighborhood in Watertown, Massachusetts, [1] centered on the intersection of Main Street [2] and North Beacon Street (both part of U.S. Route 20) and Galen Street and Mount Auburn Street (both part of State Route 16).
The square stands immediately to the north of the Charles River, [3] which is crossed by the Watertown Bridge on Galen Street. The Armenian Library and Museum of America is located in the square; Watertown Dam is 1,000 feet (300 m) to the west.
MBTA bus routes 59 and 71 terminate in a busway on the west side of the square, while route 70 stops on the north side.
The Watertown Branch Railroad opened through Watertown Square in 1847. Passenger service on the line ended on July 9, 1938, and the second track was removed by early 1940. [4] The middle section of the line from the Waltham/Watertown line through Watertown Square to East Watertown was abandoned in 1960. The former Watertown station was reused as a lumber company by 1968, but later demolished. [5]
In September 2023, a new plan for the square was announced by the City of Watertown. [6] The city plans to reconfigure the square to add public space and support future housing development. Charles River Road and Riverside Street would be rerouted to the east, creating a standard four-way intersection between Main/North Beacon and Galen/Mount Auburn. MBTA routes 59 and 71 would be extended to Watertown Yard, with the Columbus Delta park expanded onto the former busway area. [7]
Kenmore station is an underground light rail station on the MBTA Green Line, located under Kenmore Square in the Fenway/Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is served by the B, C, and D branches of the Green Line. The station has two island platforms, one for each direction. Kenmore is the primary station for Fenway Park, which is 1,000 feet (300 m) to the south. The station opened on October 23, 1932 as a one-station extension of the Boylston Street subway to relieve congestion in the square. It was renovated for accessibility in 2050–2010.
Alewife station is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) intermodal transit station in the North Cambridge neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is the northwest terminal of the rapid transit Red Line and a hub for several MBTA bus routes. The station is at the confluence of the Minuteman Bikeway, Alewife Linear Park, Fitchburg Cutoff Path, and Alewife Greenway off Alewife Brook Parkway adjacent to Massachusetts Route 2, with a five-story parking garage for park and ride use. The station has three bike cages. Alewife station is named after nearby Alewife Brook Parkway and Alewife Brook, themselves named after the alewife fish.
Harvard station is a rapid transit and bus transfer station in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Located at Harvard Square, it serves the MBTA's Red Line subway system as well as MBTA buses. Harvard averaged 18,528 entries each weekday in FY2019, making it the third-busiest MBTA station after Downtown Crossing and South Station. Five of the fifteen key MBTA bus routes stop at the station.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates 152 bus routes in the Greater Boston area. The MBTA has a policy objective to provide transit service within walking distance for all residents living in areas with population densities greater than 5,000 inhabitants per square mile (1,900/km2) within the MBTA's service district. Much of this service is provided by bus. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 91,459,700, or about 310,700 per weekday as of the first quarter of 2024.
Lechmere station is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line light rail station in Lechmere Square in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is located on the east side of Monsignor O'Brien Highway near First Street, adjacent to the NorthPoint development. The accessible elevated station has a single island platform, with headhouses at both ends. It opened on March 21, 2022, as part of the Green Line Extension (GLX). Lechmere station is served by Green Line D branch and E branch service.
Reservoir station is a light rail station on the MBTA Green Line D branch, located in Brookline, Massachusetts, adjacent to the Cleveland Circle area of Brighton. The station is adjacent to Reservoir Yard and Carhouse, with the Cleveland Circle terminus of the C branch just a block away. With a daily ridership of 3,395, Reservoir is the second-busiest surface stop on the D branch.
The Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) was a streetcar and rapid transit railroad operated on, above, and below, the streets of Boston, Massachusetts and surrounding communities. Founded in 1894, it eventually acquired the West End Street Railway via lease and merger to become the city's primary mass transit provider. Its modern successor is the state-run Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), which continues to operate in part on infrastructure developed by BERy and its predecessors.
Key bus routes of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) system are 15 routes that have high ridership and higher frequency standards than other bus lines, according to the 2004 MBTA Service Policy. Together, they account for roughly 40% of the MBTA's total bus ridership. These key bus routes ensure basic geographic coverage with frequent service in the densest areas of Boston, and connect to other MBTA services to give access to other areas throughout the region.
The Newton and Boston Street Railway was a streetcar company in the Boston, Massachusetts area, eventually bought by the Middlesex and Boston Street Railway. Its line is now the 59 Needham Junction – Watertown Square via Newtonville bus.
The B branch, also called the Commonwealth Avenue branch or Boston College branch, is a branch of the MBTA Green Line light rail system which operates on Commonwealth Avenue west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts. One of four branches of the Green Line, the B branch runs from Boston College station down the median of Commonwealth Avenue to Blandford Street. There, it enters Blandford Street portal into Kenmore station, where it merges with the C and D branches. The combined services run into the Boylston Street subway and Tremont Street subway to downtown Boston. B branch service has terminated at Government Center since October 2021. Unlike the other branches, the B branch runs solely through the city limits of Boston. The Green Line Rivalry between Boston College and Boston University is named in reference to the B branch, which runs to both universities.
The A branch or Watertown Line was a streetcar line in the Boston, Massachusetts, area, operating as a branch of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Green Line. The line ran from Watertown through Newton Corner, Brighton, and Allston to Kenmore Square, then used the Boylston Street subway and Tremont Street subway to reach Park Street station.
The Boston-area trolleybus system formed part of the public transportation network serving Greater Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It opened on April 11, 1936, with a large network operating for the next quarter-century. Measured by fleet size, the Boston-area system was the second-largest trolleybus system in the United States at its peak, with only the Chicago system having more trolleybuses than Boston's 463. After 1963, the only remaining portion was a four-route cluster operating from the Harvard bus tunnel at Harvard station, running through Cambridge, Belmont, and Watertown. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority took over the routes in 1964.
As with many large cities, a large number of Boston-area streetcar lines once existed, and many continued operating into the 1950s. However, only a few now remain, namely the four branches of the Green Line and the Ashmont–Mattapan High-Speed Line, with only one running regular service on an undivided street.
Route 86 is a local bus route in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville, Massachusetts, operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) as part of MBTA bus service. It operates on a circumferential route between Sullivan Square station and Reservoir station via Union Square, Somerville, Harvard Square, and Brighton Center. In 2018, it had the 18th-highest weekday ridership on the system, though it ranked 37th by number of weekday trips. A 2018–19 MBTA review of its bus system found that route 86 had infrequent and unreliable service, including irregular scheduled headways, despite its high ridership and significance as a crosstown connecting route.
Wood Island station is an MBTA Blue Line rapid transit station located off Bennington Street in the Day Square section of East Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. The station is adjacent to and named for the former Wood Island Park, a once heavily used recreational area for East Boston residents. Most of the park was destroyed in the mid 1960s to expand Logan International Airport. It was built in 1952, replacing a pair of Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad stations that served the area.
Watertown Carhouse is a bus maintenance facility and former streetcar carhouse located in the southern section of Watertown, Massachusetts, across the Charles River from Watertown Square. As Watertown Yard, the site also serves as a bus depot serving local and express routes 52, 57, 59, and 504, with additional connections available at Watertown Square station on the opposite end of the Watertown Bridge.
The Watertown Branch Railroad was a branch loop of the Fitchburg Railroad that was meant to serve the town of Watertown and the City of Waltham, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, as an independent short line railroad; it also serviced the Watertown Arsenal. The line has been formally abandoned and portions have been converted into a rail trail, the Watertown-Cambridge Greenway. A section from School Street to Arlington Street in Watertown was completed first. A small portion in Waltham has been converted into a park called Chemistry Station Park after the railroad station once located there. Construction of an extension to Fresh Pond Reservation in Cambridge began in the summer of 2018 and was completed in June 2022.
Route 16 is a 59.8646-mile-long (96.3427 km) east–west state highway in Massachusetts. It begins in the west at an intersection with Route 12 and Route 193 in Webster, just north of the Connecticut state border. It runs in a generally southwest-northeast routing through a number of Boston's suburbs and runs to the west and then north of the city before ending in Revere at an intersection with Route 1A and Route 60.
Union Square is a square in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts at the intersection of Cambridge Street and Brighton Avenue/North Beacon Street. Union Square is serviced by the MBTA 57, 64, 66, 501, and 503 buses. There is also a station for the Blue Bikes bicycle sharing system in Union Square.
Newton Corner is an MBTA bus transfer point in the Newton Corner neighborhood of Newton, Massachusetts, located on the rotary where Washington Street crosses the Massachusetts Turnpike. The Newton Corner station, known simply as Newton for much of its lifetime, served commuters on the Worcester Line from 1834 to 1959. A streetcar stop, located on the surface streets, served a number of routes beginning in 1863, including the Green Line A branch until 1969. Newton Corner is now a stop and transfer point for MBTA routes 52, 57, 501, 504, 553, 554, 556, and 558, which include express routes to downtown Boston as well as local routes, with stops on the north and south sides of the rotary.
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