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Blue Line (MBTA)
The Blue Line is a rapid transit line in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, one of four rapid transit lines operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). It runs from Bowdoin station in downtown Boston under Boston Harbor to East Boston and Revere on the inner North Shore, where it terminates at Wonderland. The stop at Airport Station, by way of a free shuttle bus, is one of two rapid transit connections to Logan International Airport. In 1967, during a systemwide rebranding, the line was assigned the blue color because it passes under the Boston Harbor. With an end-to-end travel time of less than twenty minutes, the Blue Line is the shortest of Boston's heavy-rail lines and the only line to have both third rail and overhead catenary sections. The East Boston Tunnel was built as a streetcar tunnel in 1904 with Howard A. Carson as chief engineer; after an extension to Bowdoin in 1916, it was converted to heavy rail metro rolling stock in 1924. In 1952 a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orient Heights Station
Orient Heights station is a rapid transit station in Boston, Massachusetts. The station serves the MBTA Blue Line. It is located off Bennington Street in East Boston's Orient Heights neighborhood. Formerly a Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad station under various names from 1875 to 1940, it reopened in 1952. The 1952-built station was closed in March 2013 for a complete rebuilding to provide full accessibility and reopened on November 26, 2013. Orient Heights station is the primary rapid transit connection for the Orient Heights neighborhood of East Boston, as well as for Winthrop. It also serves as a bus transfer station, with three routes connecting Winthrop and Orient Heights. Orient Heights Yard, the main Blue Line yard, branches off the main line just north of the station. Because of the proximity, Blue Line employees report to work at Orient Heights station. History BRB&L era The narrow gauge Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad (BRB&L) opened from East Boston t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Adams Carson
Howard Adams Carson (1842–1931) was an American civil engineer and pioneer of tunnel construction.obit in ''Boston Herald'', Tuesday October 27, 1931 Carson received his B.S. from MIT in 1869. He was an assistant engineer at the Providence, Rhode Island water works from 1871 to 1877. He then became an engineer for Boston's metropolitan engineering department. He was appointed as the chief engineer for Boston's new sewage and drainage system, which he designed in 1887. When the Boston Transit Commission was created in 1894, he was appointed as the Commission's Chief Engineer. Carson is most famous as the chief engineer for the Tremont Street subway, which was begun in March 1895 and completed in September 1897. He was also the chief engineer of the East Boston and Washington Street subways. In 1909 he resigned from the Boston Transit Commission and then served as a consultant for several engineering projects, including the construction of the New York subway and a two-track railwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Line (MBTA)
The Red Line is a rapid transit line operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) as part of the MBTA subway system. The line runs south and east underground from Alewife station in North Cambridge through Somerville and Cambridge, surfacing to cross the Longfellow Bridge then returning to tunnels under Downtown Boston. It continues underground through South Boston, splitting into two branches on the surface at JFK/UMass station. The Ashmont branch runs southwest through Dorchester to Ashmont station, where the connecting light rail Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line (shown as part of the Red Line on maps, but operated separately) continues to Mattapan station. The Braintree branch runs southwest through Quincy and Braintree to Braintree station. The Red Line operates during normal MBTA service hours (all times except late nights) with six-car trains. The 218-car active fleet consists of three orders of cars built in 1969–70, 1987–89, and 1993–9 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rapid Transit Technology
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be called a subway, tube, or underground. Unlike buses or trams, rapid transit systems are railways (usually electric) that operate on an exclusive right-of-way, which cannot be accessed by pedestrians or other vehicles, and which is often grade-separated in tunnels or on elevated railways. Modern services on rapid transit systems are provided on designated lines between stations typically using electric multiple units on rail tracks, although some systems use guided rubber tires, magnetic levitation (''maglev''), or monorail. The stations typically have high platforms, without steps inside the trains, requiring custom-made trains in order to minimize gaps between train and platform. They are typically integrated with other public transpo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Square, Cambridge
Central Square is an area in Cambridge, Massachusetts centered on the junction of Massachusetts Avenue (Cambridge), Massachusetts Avenue, Prospect Street and Western Avenue. , formed by the junction of Massachusetts Avenue, Columbia Street, Sidney Street and Main Street, is also considered a part of the Central Square area. Harvard Square is to the northwest along Massachusetts Avenue, Inman Square is to the north along Prospect Street and Kendall Square is to the east along Main Street. The section of Central Square along Massachusetts Avenue between Clinton Street and Main Street is designated the Central Square Historic District, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. Culture Central Square was designated an official Cultural District in the state of Massachusetts by the Mass Cultural Council in October 2012. Central Square is known for its wide variety of ethnic restaurants, churches, bars, and live music and theatre venues. Richard B. Modica Way, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scollay Under (BERy Station)
Government Center station is an MBTA subway station in Boston, Massachusetts. It is located at the intersection of Tremont, Court and Cambridge Streets in the Government Center area. It is a transfer point between the light rail Green Line and the rapid transit Blue Line. With the Green Line platform having opened in 1898, the station is the third-oldest operating subway station (and the second-oldest of the quartet of "hub stations") in the MBTA system; only Park Street and Boylston are older. The station previously served Scollay Square before its demolition for the creation of Boston City Hall Plaza. The station was closed on March 22, 2014 for a major renovation, which included retrofitting the station for accessibility and building a new glass headhouse on City Hall Plaza. The new fully accessible station was reopened on March 21, 2016. History Scollay Square As the first horsecar lines were built in the late 1850s, the Scollay Building in Scollay Square became the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boston Elevated Railway
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. History Originally intended to build a short electric trolley line to Brookline, the West End Street Railway was organized in 1887. By the next year it had consolidated ownership of a number of horse-drawn streetcar lines, composing a fleet of 7,816 horses and 1,480 rail vehicles. As the system grew, a switch to underground pulled-cable propulsion (modeled after the San Francisco cable cars) was contemplated. After visiting Frank Sprague and witnessing the Richmond, Virginia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joy Street Incline, 1915
The word joy refers to the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune, and is typically associated with feelings of intense, long lasting happiness. Dictionary definitions Dictionary definitions of joy typically include a sense of it being a reaction to an external happening, e.g. a physical sensation experienced, or receiving good news. Distinction vs similar states saw a clear distinction between joy, pleasure, and happiness: "I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for Joy", and "I call it Joy, which is here a technical term and must be sharply distinguished both from Happiness and Pleasure. Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again... I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world. But then Joy is never in our power and Pleasure often is." Michela Summa say ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantic Avenue Elevated
The Atlantic Avenue Elevated was an elevated railway around the east side of Downtown Boston, Massachusetts, providing a second route for the Boston Elevated Railway's Main Line Elevated (now the MBTA's Orange Line) around the Washington Street tunnel. It was in use from 1901 to 1938, when it was closed due to low ridership, later being demolished. History The Atlantic Avenue El was conceived as a part of a greater mass transit proposal by the Boston Transit Commission in 1896. After the success of the Tremont Street subway (now the Green Line) the Commission began looking at options for a unified system that would serve all of downtown Boston and reach out into the growing suburbs. As conceived, there would be two corridors through which elevated trains would run: the Washington Street tunnel – the heart of today's MBTA Orange Line subway – under Washington Street from a portal at Oak Street to the then-existing subway portal north of Haymarket Square, and an all-eleva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Streetcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are called tramways or simply trams/streetcars. Many recently built tramways use the contemporary term light rail. The vehicles are called streetcars or trolleys (not to be confused with trolleybus) in North America and trams or tramcars elsewhere. The first two terms are often used interchangeably in the United States, with ''trolley'' being the preferred term in the eastern US and ''streetcar'' in the western US. ''Streetcar'' or ''tramway'' are preferred in Canada. In parts of the United States, internally powered buses made to resemble a streetcar are often referred to as "trolleys". To avoid further confusion with trolley buses, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) refers to them as "trolley-replica buses". In the United ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tunnelling Shield
A tunnelling shield is a protective structure used during the excavation of large, man-made tunnels. When excavating through ground that is soft, liquid, or otherwise unstable, there is a potential health and safety hazard to workers and the project itself from falling materials or a cave-in. A tunnelling shield can be used as a temporary support structure. It is usually in place for the short-term from when the tunnel section is excavated until it can be lined with a permanent support structure. The permanent structure may be made up of, depending on the period, bricks, concrete, cast iron, or steel. Although modern shields are commonly cylindrical, the first "shield", designed by Marc Isambard Brunel, was actually a large, rectangular, scaffold-like iron structure with three levels and twelve sections per level, with a solid load-bearing top surface. The structure protected the men from cave-ins as they laboured within it, digging the tunnel out in front of the shield. History ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
