Some cities grow within the bounds of their topography.
Others push far beyond them. Boston simply tailor-made its town. As much as Venice or Amsterdam, Boston was a self-made city. In less than a century, the press of commerce and its posture as the Hub made the town of 789 acres more than triple its size. Shovelful by shovelful, Bostonians filled oozy salt marshes, tidal estuaries, and coves with the tops of its three hills.