Newbies in Boston

Some Canadian Geese and their goslings seemed to be enjoying themselves in the Charles River despite the incessant rain.

Zakim Bridge

In honor of today's daily photo theme being bridges, we thought we'd post a photo of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge. Lenny Zakim was an American religious and civil rights leader, and since he was known for "building bridges" between Boston's racial and ethnic communities it seemed only natural that an actual bridge be named after him. The bridge opened to traffic in 2003 and since that was before I lived here, I asked Sarah if she had any local knowledge of it...

"The first winter after it opened they discovered the flaw in the design—snow/ice froze on the suspension wires and then when it got warm and started to melt, chunks came crashing down on to cars. I can't remember details, but I remember there being a few accidents. I don't know if the chunks actually broke windshields or damaged the cars themselves, but it scared the bejesus out of people when big chunks of melting ice crashed onto their cars and caused accidents that way even if there was no damage."

There are currently 128 City Daily Photo blogs participating in today's Theme Day:

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Harbor View

A view of Boston at sunset from Boston Harbor.

Sunset on the Charles

We had visitors in town this past weekend and took them to the top of the Prudential building for a view of Boston at sunset. Top right is the Hood Blimp, while down below the Red Sox were playing Toronto at Fenway Park.

Attack of the Smoots

If you've ever walked along Harvard Bridge then you've probably noticed the painted markings along the sidewalk. Far from graffiti, they are smoot markings (a unit of length that measures 5' 7") that measure the length of the bridge as being 364.4 smoots plus one ear. As local legend has it, these markings first came into existence in 1958 when an MIT student by the name of Oliver Smoot (5'7" tall) was used by fraternity pledges to measure the length of the bridge. The markings are repainted biannually by the Lambda Chi Alpha pledge class using different colors. This tradition survived the demolition and rebuilding of the bridge in 1988 thanks to the Cambridge police who requested that the markings be maintained since they're useful for identifying the location of accidents on the bridge. As an added bonus the new concrete surface was scored at intervals of 5'7" instead of the conventional six feet.

The markings typically appear at every 10 smoots, but over the years additional marks have been added such as the 69 smoot mark which says "Heaven" below it and the 182.2 smoot mark which has the words "Halfway to Hell" and an arrow pointing towards MIT.

Graffiti

Found this on the Esplanade bike path along the Charles.

PS - yesterday was our 100th post - wooohooooo!

Slaying the Dragon

The Dragon Boat Festival was this past weekend on the Charles. There were a number of dancing/drumming/music performances as well as tons of food, some informational booths and dragon boat races!

(click to enlarge for a slightly better view of the boat! - and see another here)

"De Nile" Is Not A River in Egypt!

Since today's torrential rain is rather depressing, let's pretend that it's actually warm and sunny outside like last weekend when this picture was taken.

Paddling on the Charles

A Lazy Day in Boston

All that's missing...

...is a Margarita with an umbrella in it! Kudos to these individuals who came up with the brilliant idea of setting up a hammock on the river.

Sunny on the Charles

A snapshot of yesterday's activities along the Charles River. People were biking, running, walking, sailing, kayaking, wind surfing, reading, climbing trees, and sleeping in the sun. I love Boston in the summertime!

Riding on the Charles...

Summer weather is here and everyone's making the most of it by exercising outdoors. The paths along the Charles River have been a hive of activity all week.

I'm not dead yet!

Don't be fooled - this tree isn't dead, it's just growing sideways.

In Charles River Park, with Cambridge across the river.

Happy sunny day?

We've had some nice weather this weekend. The sun stays out for 4-5 hours, and then the grey skies come in and rain comes pouring down for the rest of the day. Just goes to show that what they say about New England weather is true: if you don't like it, wait 15 minutes and it will change!