Boston


East and west views from the Longfellow Bridge. The first photo shows off the Bunker Hill Bridge on I-93, and the second shows City Hall (the golden dome).


And no Boston skyline is complete without the Hancock and Prudential towers - and the CITGO sign!!

Holy ganders, there's life on the Charles!


A different sort of... aquatic?... life.


Normally, SCHOOL is on a separate banner, or not there at all. What you might notice is that this sign is also on a black square. I've seen them on diamonds before, but never squares.


On Beacon St. WB in the Chestnut Hill area, this is Mass. DPW's old font, which makes sense because MA 30 used to jog down Chestnut Hill Ave. to Beacon St. and ride that into Kenmore Square (as in, because this was once a state highway, it makes sense to have a state-spec sign).


Old embossed square signage in Charlestown, downtown, and Back Bay respectively. Most has been replaced by newer flat signage, but not all, including one at Hamilton Coolidge Square. Boston loves its squares (aka intersections).


Public Alleys in Boston are on the half-block between E-W streets in Back Bay's rectangular grid; they are mostly used for parking and sanitation. These are off of Massachusetts Avenue, MA 2A.


This shield is on Beacon Street just east of the Fenway. Until the 1970's, Boston had city routes that formed one-way pairs down Beacon and Marlborough. A long time ago, US 20 followed a two-way Beacon Street.


In Allston off of Storrow Drive near Cambridge Street, this building manages to defy gravity for quite a long stretch. Maybe an MIT civil engineer designed it?


A stub of the Green Line, once elevated after Haymarket Station, but now submerged into North Station as downtown continues to emerge from the shadows of its green monsters. This disappeared once the Charles River Dam viaduct was tied into the new underground section. I think the yellow beams were temporary and were used to support the Green Line while it was still operating along this stretch through construction activities.


Button copy high above the I-93 Big Dig tunnels for South Station. Until I go up there to pretend to park, I won't get a better view.


EB and WB respectively on Cambridge St. The non-cutout EB shield beats the disproportionate WB shield.


Heading into East Boston now (still part of the City of Boston), the street signs retain their pictorial history of Boston (CONDITA 1630).


This once ran as a Conrail train line, but has long fallen into disuse. It's planned to be part of the Urban Ring network of buses (Bus Rapid Transit, which has segregated busways and fewer stops than regular buses), as well as the Chelsea Truck Bypass, which will take trucks from the airport-related industries in Chelsea directly to Logan Airport without having to go through the residential East Boston neighborhood around Day Square.


This is where the Battle of Bunker Hill wasn't fought. Yup, Bunker Hill, well north of Boston and barely within East Boston along MA 1A. Hey, what's that atop the hill? A giant light-up cross? In this case, church + history = commercialization, sadly.

Onto the Longfellow Bridge, MA 3
Onto Mass. Ave., MA 2A
Onto MA 1A
To the Big Dig
Onto I-93
Onto MA 28
Back to Mass. Roads
Back to Roads

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Below: If you don't know where this is, come and visit the city! Notice the crescent moon in the second photo.