The Walden Street Cattle Pass, also referred to as the cow path,
Cambridge Department of Public Works is an historic site adjacent to the MBTA Commuter Rail

Fitchburg Line The Fitchburg Line is a branch of the MBTA Commuter Rail system which runs from Boston's North Station to Wachusett station in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The line is along the tracks of the former Fitchburg Railroad, which was built across norther ...

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

, under the Walden Street Bridge in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1994. The site, a tunnel for moving cattle between the railroad and the nearby stockyards of the 19th century, was built in 1857. The cattle yards were closed in 1868Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge: Northwest Cambridge, 1977, , Cambridge Historical Commission, Cambridge, Mass., p. 42 or "about 1871","Cambridge Cattle Market", in Cambridge Historical Commission-North Cambridge Stabilization Committee report, 2002 but the cattle trade continued; "until the 1920s, cows were unloaded here and driven down Massachusetts Avenue, through Harvard Square, and across the river to the

Brighton Abattoir The Brighton Abattoir was a slaughterhouse located in Brighton, Boston. It operated across Market Street from the Brighton Stock Yards, as cattle would be located into rail cars of the Boston and Albany Railroad The Boston and Albany Railroad ...

". Restoration (re-pointing) of the tunnel's brickwork was carried out during the 2007–08 replacement of the second-generation bridge dating from 1914. The third-generation bridge opened for traffic in December 2008. The Cambridge City Council discussed creation of a vantage point for viewing the tunnel, ca. 2008, but no action was taken.

References

Gallery

File:Walden Street Cattle Pass, Cambridge, MA 06.jpg, Another view of the Cattle Pass during restoration File:Walden Street Cattle Pass, Cambridge, MA 03.jpg, The rebuilt bridge, looking north File:Walden Street Cattle Pass, Cambridge, MA 04.jpg, The rebuilt bridge, looking south

External links

Artists' rendition of reconstructed bridge
Agricultural buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Tunnels on the National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures in Cambridge, Massachusetts Agricultural buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Cambridge, Massachusetts Transportation buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts {{CambridgeMA-NRHP-stub