Love that dirty water....

So you see the clock tower there in the middle? That's the Custom House Tower, located in the Financial District of Boston, not far at all from Faneuil Hall. A lot of people think of the famous Citgo sign, or the John Hancock tower when they think of Boston - but this clock tower holds its own as a pretty significant piece of the Boston skyline. Today it's used as residential space, but originally it was built to house the custom offices - it's where boats had to check in and declare all the goods they were bringing into Boston.

Doesn't sound very interesting, unless you consider the fact that what is today a completely landlocked building was once a building at the end of a city dock. Boats could pull right up to the building to do all their customs business. Over the years the water around the building was filled and it now looks like any other city block with cars driving around it and lots of pedestrian areas.

Something to keep in mind next time you visit Boston is the fact that a very large portion of the city was once just seawater. A lot of Boston was built on dirt, rock, and wood pilings that were added to the water to create land!

*this is Whit's photo, for the record.