DOI: 10.5176/2425-0112_UPPD17.13
Authors: John R. Mullin
Abstract: Sixty years ago if one was walking along Boston's waterfront as a flaneur one would be traveling through an aging and decaying but still active area full of life as the day's catch of fish was off-loaded, operators of produce and meat markets peddled their goods, and a freight train moved goods between the City's North and South Stations. Ocean going and coastal freighters and tankers would slowly pass the archipelago of islands that dot Boston Harbor through polluted water to grimy piers while the sparks of welders' torches repairing vessels in the Navy Yard provided showers of bright sparkles. Ferry boats would be carrying commuters to and from the water's edge and bobbing fishing vessels would be sprinkled among the harbor islands. Our flaneur would catch the smells of both fresh and not so fresh fish, of salt from the sea and of exhaust fumes emanating from the engines of ships and trucks idling throughout. While the backdrop of the waterfront may have been old, weathered and decayed, it was still just as much a place of bustling movement and trade as it was 100 years earlier
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