Boston's rank among American cities was officially summed up in 'Boston Statistics, 1915,) as follows: (First in value of property per capita, first in municipal assets per capita, first in banking power per capita, the first shoe and leather centre, the first wool mar ket, the second importing seaport, the second textile centre, third in foreign trade, also in amount of bank clearings, the fourth postal district, fourth (close to third) in total as sessed valuation, fourth (probably) in popu lation, the fifth exporting seaport, and sev enth in the value of its manufactures.' Transportation.— A few words should be said about the transportation and terminal facilities of Boston. There are two main rail road stations in the city, the North and South stations. Into the former come all the trains of the Boston & Maine system, which covers especially northern Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. Passengers on the Boston & Maine to and from Boston in the year 1913-14 numbered over 25,000,000. The South station, reputed to be the largest rail road station in the world, is the main ter minal for two railroads, the Boston & Albany, now a New York Central line, and the New York, New Haven & Hartford. This station handles annually even more passengers than does the North station. Within the city Bos ton has an excellent system of elevated, sur face and sub-surface electric railways, now under the single management of the Boston Elevated Railway Company and both local transportation and rapid transit into ad jacent cities and towns. The subways are owned, and were built, by the city, sometimes in co-operation with other cities, and are leased to the Boston Elevated company at fixed annual rentals. There are now many miles of subway and extensions are continually being made. Without subways and elevated lines, the older parts of Boston would be hopelessly congested during the rush hours of the morning and evening.
With the new century, Boston awoke to the necessity of developing her harbor facili ties to more efficiently handle the growing commerce. In the past 15 years the Federal, State and city governments have co-operated on a scheme of development, which, though held up at times by unforeseen delays, has gone steadily on toward the goal of comple tion. One of the main channels of the har bor has been deepened and widened; an im mense drydock has been constructed; several large new piers have already been completed, at an expense of millions of State money; and still other works are in process. When this work shall have been all completed and the two main railroad stations more closely linked up with one another and articulated with the means of local transportation, espe cially the Boston Elevated system, Boston will have solved its chief transportation and ter minal problems for some years to come.
Points of Interest.— The city and its en virons offer to the visitor and sightseer a variety of points of interest almost if not quite unequaled in an equal space anywhere in the United States. The city and the State have taken care to preserve many of the more famous buildings of an earlier day. Among those which remain are the Old State House and Faneuil Hall, dating from 1748 and 1742, respectively, and a group of the old meeting houses, including Christ Church (1723), the Old South Meeting-house (1792), and King's Chapel (1749). In the Navy Yard in Charles town lies the old frigate Constitution, exem plifying the preparedness of another day. Bunker Hill, its monument, and Dorchestet Heights are all within the present city limits.
Changes.— In growing from a town to a metropolis, Boston has undergone fundamental changes, perhaps not all for the better. Like
most American cities, it suffers from much bad architecture. But since the middle of the last century and especially in the past 30 years, malty improvements have been made in the appearance of the city. The old part of the city still suffers from crooked, narrow, poorly-planned streets, some steep grades and other hindrances to traffic, but with the filling in of the Back Bay district, the city took the first step toward the development of a real city plan. Ample width was given to the streets and the blocks were laid out on the rectangular plan. Later the Fenway district was made a place of architectural beauty by the locating in it of the Museum of Fine Arts, the Harvard Medical School and other buildings of note. Elsewhere in the city there have been other acts of replanning, as at Copley Square, upon which fronts the splendid Public Library. In 1913, by the erection of the Custom House Tower, the sky line of the city was entirely changed; this splendid tower of stone-masonry, standing in the business district and close to the wharfs, rises high above the buildings in its vicinity and can be seen from afar on all sides of the city. A building-heights law prohibits other buildings from even approaching it in height. No enumeration of the better buildings about Boston would be complete which did not mention the State House, which stands on Beacon Hill, fronting the Common, and has been greatly enlarged since its original "Bul finch Front)) was built in 1795-97.
Parks, Playgrounds, The parks and playgrounds movement may fairly be said to have had its beginning for Americans in Bos ton. The city still stands at the head of those communities which have actually achieved their aims in this direction. There are within the city 3,574 acres of land devoted to park and playground purposes, over one-tenth of the total land area of the city. Of this area, 2,692 acres are under control of the city and 882 acres under control of the State. The Common, with an area of 48 acres, and the Public Garden, with an area of 24 acres, lie almost at the centre of the city. No district is without its park or its playground, no part of the community without an easily accessible breathing spot. Yet here again we must con sider not Boston alone, but the metropolitan district. A State-appointed Metropolitan Park Commission has developed in the en virons of the city a supplementary system of parks and reservations which is perhaps the most complete in America. Almost every part of the whole system can be reached from any part of the city on payment of a five-cent fare. North of the city lies the Middlesex Fells Reservation, containing over 3,000 acres of woodland and hills. South of the city lies the Blue Hills Reservation, containing 4,232 acres. The ocean beaches north and south of the city have been preserved and equipped with bathing facilities. Both banks of the Charles River have been included in the general scheme for a number of miles inland. And finally, all the important units in the system have been linked up one with another by means of a system of well-kept boulevards. Indeed, in every respect, in plan ning as well as in maintenance, in the equip ment of playgrounds and the provision of bathing facilities and in the more especially educative features provided at the Marine Park, the Franklin Park Zoo and the Arnold Arboretum, the park system of Boston and of the metropolitan district may be said to be excellent.