Alewife Brook Parkway

Course of the road

The Alewife Brook Parkway is a parkway that runs through the urban areas of Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts in the United States. The road is listed since 2004 on the National Register of Historic Places. At its entire length of the Parkway is reported as part of Massachusetts Route 16, while some of the southernmost sections are also reported as part of Massachusetts Route 2 and U.S. Highway 3. The Parkway is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR ) and is part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston.

Route

Overview

The Parkway begins at Fresh Pond in Cambridge, where he is connected via the Concord Avenue to the Fresh Pond Parkway. The road then continues north along the eastern border of the Alewife Brook Reservation to the Mystic River on the outskirts of Medford, where she becomes the Mystic Valley Parkway.

Detailed route

The southern end of the Parkway is formed from the western of the two roundabouts at Fresh Pond, where the Concord Avenue Parkway connects with the beginning at the eastern roundabout Fresh Pond Parkway. To the north, the road is U.S. Route 2 and 3, and to the east as Massachusetts Route recognized as Massachusetts Route 16. The Parkway runs roughly north and east leads the MBTA Alewife station to a large cross, which was a roundabout earlier. There, the Route 2 continues towards the west, while the Parkway runs from here to the north and parallel to the Alewife Brook. It thus forms the western boundary between Cambridge and Arlington.

The Parkway crosses the Massachusetts Avenue which leads eastward westward the Massachusetts Route 2A in the direction of Porter Square as well as the routes 2A and 3 in the direction of Arlington. The Parkway runs more parallel to the Alewife Brook up to Somerville. After he crossed Broadway, he leads a circular traffic- like connection with the Powder House Boulevard, to then pass the Dilboy stage and to find its northern end at a small roundabout where the Alewife Brook empties into the Mystic River. There, take the road on the Mystic Valley Parkway, which runs from Arlington to Medford. The Parkway is a total of 2.05 mi (3.3 km) long.

History

The Parkway was originally designed by landscape architect Charles Eliot as part of a larger piece, designed for recreation and pleasure aspects of the road network, which was designed solely on aesthetic considerations. The nearby Alewife Brook was straightened in the course of construction and channeled 1909-1912, so that construction of the parkways in 1916 was completed. The design of the landscaping was carried out by the Olmsted Brothers.

At the southern end of the Parkway, further modifications were made in the late 1980s. Among other things, a four-lane connecting ramp over the tracks of the railway Boston - Fitchburg and new departures were built to shopping centers. The center strip was re- landscaped and new trees, street lighting and bike paths were integrated into the sidewalks. The renovation also included measures to improve accessibility to the bridge to the Rindge Towers, a new pedestrian access to the MBTA station Alewife, the construction of the Alewife Linear Park and a cycle path on Jerry's Pond and its own truck Anlieferstraße for the nearby shopping centers.

Because of the last century, ever-increasing traffic, the original aesthetics in the southernmost sections of the Parkway was largely lost. Today the road is the main link between the Massachusetts Route 2 and the western suburbs on one side and between the city centers of Boston and Cambridge on the other side, which is why there runs a very high number of vehicles daily. The MBTA Alewife station, shopping malls, parking garages, office and apartment buildings along the Parkway also provide for increased traffic load.