| Massachusetts Avenue (boston) |
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Information AboutMassachusetts Avenue (boston) |
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Massachusetts Avenue, known to locals as '''Mass Ave''', is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts and several cities and towns northwest of Boston. THE ROUTE The street begins in the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury and runs southeast-northwest through Boston, paralleling Interstate 93 for a short distance and interchanging with the Massachusetts Turnpike ( Interstate 90 ). It crosses the Charles River from the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston into the city of Cambridge via the Harvard Bridge , where it bisects the campus of the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology , passes through Central Square , and curves around two sides of Harvard Yard at Harvard Square and Harvard Law School . After Harvard Square it turns sharply northward and passes through Porter Square , where it bears northwestward. It continues through Cambridge, Arlington , and Lexington , where it enters the Minuteman National Historical Park . The road, by the same name, continues northwest and west, through many different cities and towns. It largely parallels or joins Route 2 and Route 2A , all the way into central Massachusetts, with a few gaps at towns that have different names for the central road. For much of its length, Massachusetts Avenue is a center of commercial activity, especially through the larger towns. Apartments, shops, and restaurants fill both sides of it, and there is a lot of Pedestrian traffic. PAUL REVERE'S RIDE On the night of April 18-19, 1775, Paul Revere rode his horse down a portion of this road (then known as the Great Road) on his "Midnight Ride." On April 18-19, 1775, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott also rode on Massachusetts Avenue on their way to Concord. (These travels were on portions of the road on the Cambridge side of the Charles River; the Harvard Bridge was not constructed until the 1880s.) MASS AVE IN POP CULTURE Boston band The Dresden Dolls reference the street in their song 'Truce' ("I want Mass Ave from the square to my apartment"). |
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