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December 2000

Massachusetts - Boston

David Aaronson
2005-09-24 18:48:23

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defend.

Bunker Hill, or its monument at least, is located in Charlestown (9), which isn't really a separate city but a part of Boston. It has its own identity though and is filled with colorful, contiguous, New England style homes like these.

One can climb to the top of the Bunker Hill Monument, which was built in the first half of the 19th century. There are 294 steps and 0 elevators. It is a spiralling staircase as well so by the time you get to the top, one leg is shorter than the other one. Don't let this deter you though, they'll even out on the way down. Here is the Constitution again (10) as seen from atop the monument.

The battle of Bunker Hill was important because even though the revolutionaries lost (yes, we lost the battle of Bunker Hill, pay attention), the British suffered a ridiculous number of casualties to gain the relatively meaningless hill. General Nathaniel Greene was later quoted as saying, "I wish we could sell them another hill at the same price". Of course, this might have something to do with marching in straight lines and wearing bright red jackets versus hiding behind logs and wearing earth tones but we aren't really here to comment on military history.

We are often here to comment on the architecture of US capitol buildings though. Unfortunately, Boston's was largely under reconstructive efforts at the time so you can't see much other than the dome.

Here are Melanie and I at one corner of the Boston Commons (11) - a large city park in the middle of the downtown area. It was much warmer on this day than the first day as you might be able to tell by the fact that Melanie is exposing her hair to the world in this picture.

We also returned to Faneuil Hall (12), which we had visited the first day. Faneuil Hall is given a variety of monikers, most of which have also been given to Independence Hall in Philadelphia. For instance, 'the cradle of liberty'. Faneuil Hall has been an important meeting place as long as Boston has been an important city. Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Sam and John Adams acted out many of their most famous scenes here. Nowadays, the first floor is a marketplace but the meeting hall remains upstairs.