The Cambridge of eighteen hundred and ninety-six: a picture of the city and its industries fifty years after its incorporation
Arthur Gilman, Ed.

[110] initiation of this enterprise, which paralyzed all energies, effectually put an end to the efforts of this company. A short section of stone wall on the river front, ragged from neglect, remained as a forlorn monument of the fallen fortunes of this enterprise until 1889, when a citizen of Boston, convinced of the possibilities of these barren lands, situated as they were in the heart of a great community, and within a trifling distance of the commercial centres of his city, acquired nearly fifty acres of this territory, including the entire water front, half a mile in length, lying between the canal and either bridge.

The effort to recover this land was at once renewed, and this time with effect. First Street was at once filled, from its terminus at Binney Street to the line of Broad Canal, a thousand feet in length, and the sea-wall along the river extended easterly. By a wise cooperation of the city authorities and the courageous investor, the Broad Canal was at length bridged, and entrance gained to Main Street at its junction with West Boston bridge. Since that time, the work of recovering the waste lands of this part of Cambridge has been rapid. Already about fifteen acres of original flat-lands have been filled. First Street has been recognized by the city authorities as a thoroughfare of such importance as to warrant a pavement of granite blocks. Its sidewalks, ten feet in width, will be asphalted. On this street stands, finished but yesterday, one of the noblest monuments of industry yet erected in Cambridge, a great structure, whose purposes are proclaimed by Athena, goddess of letters, whose heroic effigy proudly crowns its pediment.

Of the ancient marshes and flats in this quarter of the city, between the highlands and the river's line, over one hundred acres still await reclamation. It is to this district that Cambridge must largely look in the future for its prosperity. For here, under wise encouragement, should grow up a great manufacturing quarter second to none other in or near the capital city. All elements necessary for the creation of a commercial district of this character seem to be here in happy conspiracy. It is almost at the gates of Boston. First Street is only a mile distant from the City Hall of Boston, and, accordingly, nearer to that accepted centre than the Hotel Vendome, than the new Union station now proposed on the Back Bay, than Dover Street, than all South Boston, except a small portion of the newly made lands, than all East Boston, than all Charlestown