The Annisquam River is a tidal, salt-water estuary in the Annisquam neighborhood of

Gloucester, Massachusetts Gloucester () is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It sits on Cape Ann and is a part of Massachusetts's North Shore. The population was 29,729 at the 2020 U.S. Census. An important center of the fishing industry and a ...

, connecting Annisquam Harbor on the north to

Gloucester Harbor Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east of th ...

on the south. The segment between Gloucester Harbor and the

Newburyport/Rockport Line The Newburyport/Rockport Line is a branch of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, running northeast from downtown Boston, Massachusetts towards Cape Ann and the Merrimack Valley, serving the North Shore. The first leg, operating via the Eastern Rou ...

bridge is also known as the Blynman Canal. The estuary is about long, navigable, and open to the ocean at both ends. Its surface area is . The name "Annisquam" comes from an Algonquian term meaning "top of the rock, containing '''', "on top of", and ''<-ompsk>'', "rock". The first European settlement in Annisquam was established in 1631. The river was dredged by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1965 to create a channel some deep, and wide.

Annisquam Harbor Light Annisquam Harbor Light Station is a historic lighthouse on Wigwam Point in the Annisquam neighborhood of Gloucester, Massachusetts. It can be viewed from nearby Wingaersheek Beach, Gloucester. It lies on the Annisquam River and is one of the four ...

stands on the east, Cape Ann, side of the north entrance to the river. There are only three fixed crossings of the river: Massachusetts Route 128, the Rockport Branch of the MBTA Newburyport/Rockport Line, and Western Avenue (

Massachusetts Route 127 Route 127 is a north–south Massachusetts state route that runs from Beverly to Gloucester. Much of the northern part of the route is in Cape Ann. Route 127's southern terminus is at Route 1A and the southern terminus of Route 22 in ...

). There are strong tidal currents in the river, and unusually the current flows in opposite directions at the two ends.http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/currents15/tab2ac2.html

References

* * * {{coord, 42, 39, 18, N, 70, 41, 8, W, display=title Gloucester, Massachusetts Estuaries of Massachusetts Bodies of water of Essex County, Massachusetts