Muddy River
They paved paradise and put up a Storrow ramp
By adamg - 5/19/11 - 10:36 pm
Nowadays, Charlesgate mostly brings to mind the crumbling ramp system connecting Storrow Drive and the roads of the Fenway - its underside a transient homeless camp next to a mucky "pond."
But once it was a bucolic connection between the Muddy and the Charles rivers, part of Olmsted's creative plan for both creating a key part of the Emerald Necklace and flushing out the Muddy.
Compare the above photo, from the Library of Congress's collection, and taken sometime between 1890 and 1901, to this Google Street View. The only thing the two have in common is the still standing residential building.
Some people want to tear down the Bowker overpass, built in 1967, and restore Charlesgate to its Olmstedian ideal.
Not ready to taxi
By adamg - 5/18/11 - 11:20 am
Photo by BFD.
A Brookline cab driver who lost control exiting Storrow Drive at Park Drive wound up in the Muddy River this morning, the Boston Fire Department reports.
The cabbie got himself out of his vehicle OK; a tow truck and a hazmat crew responded to remove the cab and clean up anything it might have left behind.
Esplanadization of the Fens on hold: City unlikely to get permission to mow down the reeds
By adamg - 8/23/10 - 4:08 pmMike Mennonno, who has a plot in the nearby Fenway Victory Gardens, explains.
Carps diem
By adamg - 7/1/10 - 5:42 pmLadybug's Leaf looked down from a bridge over the Muddy River in the Back Bay Fens yesterday and spotted a pair of fish.
Muddy River now also oily river
By adamg - 3/23/10 - 11:53 amThe Globe reports officials are investigating and trying to contain an oily spill in the little river that apparently came from somewhere on the Brookline side.
In 2008, you may recall, several thousand gallons of fuel oil spilled in Brighton wound up in the Muddy River.
Muddy River flooding: Double dam
By adamg - 3/15/10 - 9:37 am
The MBTA provides this photo of the temporary dams now in place at the Fenway portal where the Riverside line goes underground. The T had been running Riverside service this morning after the Muddy River receded below flood stage, but it's back above it again and there's no service between Fenway and Kenmore.
MBTA cuts Riverside service to protect Kenmore station from Muddy River floodwaters
By adamg - 3/14/10 - 9:41 pmMORNING UPDATE: The Muddy River dropped below flood stage, even if barely, so Riverside service is running this morning - although river levels have started rising again (hourly river-level data).
LATER MORNING UPDATE: The Muddy River got all floody again, so the T put the dam back and stopped Riverside service.
Around 9 p.m., the MBTA blocked off the Fenway portal used by the Riverside line to prevent a recurrence of the 1996 floods that left Kenmore station submerged in 20 feet of water and required $40 million in repairs.
The move means Riverside commuters can expect delays tomorrow as they ride shuttle buses instead of trolleys between Reservoir and Kenmore, the T advises.
A federal monitoring station on the Muddy reported the normally docile river reached flood stage around 8:45 p.m. A T alert announcing the suspension of service between Kenmore and Reservoir went out not long after.
Why they call it the Riverway
By adamg - 3/14/10 - 3:12 pm
The start of the Riverway this afternoon, along the floody Muddy near Park Drive, where a BWSC crew was trying to unclog a pipe that brings the river under the road to the Fens.
Upstream, on the Brookline side of the Big Muddy:
USGS data show the Muddy's almost at flood stage (that thin red line at the very top of the chart):
Tbobtubb photographed flooding downstream along the Fens.
Man vs. wild at the Riverway and Brookline Avenue
By adamg - 2/16/09 - 10:23 amJef Taylor shows us the dramatically different views you get at that intersection just by turning one way or the other.
