Hemlock Gorge Reservation

IUCN Category V - Protected Landscape / Seascape

Looking through the Echo Bridge

Hemlock Gorge Reservation The area is a 23 mi ² ( 59.6 km ²) of large State Park in Needham and Newton, Massachusetts in the United States. The park is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation and is part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston.

Description

The protected area was designed in the 1890s by landscape architect Charles Eliot, and was one of the first in the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston. It protects the banks of the Charles River on its way through Needham and Newton Upper Falls. The park is named after a gorge that was formerly crossed by a tributary of the Charles River and the cliffs were covered with a dense hemlock. This sidearm but was removed in the 20th century during the construction of the past leading near I-95 from the river, so that water now flows through the gorge, reached a retention basin is drained from it again when the water level of the Charles River is low.

The main features of the park are the steep gorge, the river and the Echo Bridge, which carries a part of the Sudbury Aqueduct, which is a reserve system of water supply in the vicinity of Boston. The bridge was added in 1982 as a National Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places. On a platform below the central arch of the bridge of the echo effect can be perceived by visitors, through which the bridge got its name.

At the northern end of the park, just before the river under the Massachusetts Route 9 is passed through it, he is dammed by a horseshoe-shaped dam, which was built at a site in the early 20th century, at which there was a mill in the 18th century.

The park is open year round from sunrise to sunset and provides opportunities for picnics and hiking as well as numerous photo opportunities.