Emerald Necklace

As Emerald Necklace ( Smaragdkollier ) is a 4.5 km ² merger of parks in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts in the United States referred to, which are connected by alleys and waterways. The name comes here in form which take the associated parks on the map, since they seem to hang down from the " neck " of the Boston peninsula. However, the system has not been completed to date and therefore has gaps in some places on.

Components

The chain of the park consists of the stations Boston Common, Boston Public Garden, Commonwealth Avenue, Back Bay Fens, Fenway, Riverway, Olmsted Park, Jamaica Pond, Jamaicaway, Arnold Arboretum, Arborway, Franklin Park, Dorchesterway and Park Drive. The system therefore comprises over half of the entire park and green areas of the city of Boston and other areas under the administration of the city of Brookline and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In the catchment area of the park chain are over 300,000 people who use the Emerald Necklace as a recreational area. From Boston Common to Franklin Park is seven miles (approx. 11,2 km ) distance. Some of the links of the chain are - as well as the park itself - also ecologically important: make urban ecosystems with resting and nesting areas for migratory birds and contribute to improved air quality in the city.

The course of the Emerald Necklace begins near the Boston Downtown Crossing shopping district, follows the border between Boston and Brookline, and eventually turns into the Boston's Jamaica Plain. At the southern end of the Arnold Arboretum is located the farthest from the starting point of the chain in Roslindale. Then the line runs back to Roxbury and Dorchester. The original plan called for a U- shaped course before with one end on the Boston Harbor. The final link in the chain, the Dorchesterway, but was never put into action.

History

The idea to link several parks each other and thus create a cohesive and varied recreational landscape was the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The goal was the Boston Common and the Boston Public Garden with the Franklin Park to connect.

Initial planning began in 1878 with the efforts to control the marsh area and work up so that there was the Back Bay and the Back Bay Fens occur. In the early 1880s suggested Olmsted, the Muddy River, which flowed from Jamaica Pond through the Fens, to integrate into the park. The course of the river has been adjusted accordingly and fed into the Charles River. The resulting corridor exists as a compound of the park's various until today, and Olmsted 's vision of a system of trails along a river that flows on its way through several smaller ponds, was completed towards the end of the 19th century.

In the last decade, about 60 million U.S. dollars for maintenance and development of parks and waterways of the Emerald Necklace was invested by the cities of Boston and Brookline. These include improved layout help, plantings, bridge repairs and restoration of wooden promenades and buildings. The Emerald Necklace was rather neglected in the past 50 years, so that these investments in many places are just the beginning of larger restoration measures.

There are several organizations that support the preservation of the park, including the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, the Friends of the Public Garden, the Franklin Park Coalition and the Arboretum Park Conservancy. These protect, manage and restore the park.