The Portland daily press., 1896-05-30
BACK BAY BOULEVARD.


that the foul flats Of Back Cove be kept
covered by salt water to be held back by
a long dam or dyke wholly north of the
ship channel and, therefore, not requir-,
ing any lock, but only an inlet and out
lot Of small size and comparatively trif-
ling cost. We assume that this dyke
would better be located at @ sufficient
distance from the government ship chan
mel to provide sites for various com mer-
cial establishments to be erected on
wharves or on land to be formed by fl
ling. The strip of mud flats, which
would for this purpose be left still sub.
jcet to exposure at every tide, might be
dredged of to lower level than low
water and the material thus obtained
might be used for forming the dyke.
This. in brief, is the simple engineering
solution of the problem of hiding the
foul mud flats of Back Cove which we
offer for your consideration. There are
some suggestions as to details which we
will give you for what they may be
worth, promising that we are not pro-
fessional civil engineers.
1t seems to us that the immediate pur-
pose can be accomplished most economi-
cally by building the dyke only to with
in q foot or two Of mean high water,
thus holding back water to a height am.
ply sufficient to cover the mud flats at a
great saving in the amount of filing,
as compared with what would be re-
quired to carry up the top of the dyke
well above spring tides and the even
greater height of water level occasionally
caused by storms. In any case the ma
terial of which the dyke will have to be
protected from the action of waves and
currents by a covering of coarser mater
ial. We believe that, i'll the case of the
low dyke to be submerged at every tide,
this covering may be made Of the coarse
gravel and pebbles of which some of the
beaches in the neighboring Casco Bay
are formed, supplemented, perhaps, by
certain wastes of the city. such as oyster
and clam shells, brick bats, quarry chips
and the like. The ooarseness of the COW
ering material which would answer
would depend good deal, of course on
the steepness of the slopes Of the dyke.
Experience at Marine Park. Boston,
where q beach has been artiticially
formed and where the waves and tidal
currents must be far more severe than
they could ever besinssBack Cove, seems to
provo that au ordinary gravel,
such as would be suitable for road max.
ing, will stand well enough on slope of
in 10. We have, accordingly assumed
in the cross section on the accompany
ing plan that the slopes Of the low dyke
would be formed with an inclination of
in 10.
Having determined how to form
salt water pond to cover the present tidal
mud fats and having determined upon
the eventual construction OF the needed
intercepting sewers, there remains the
problem of how best to lay out the lands
surrounding Back Cove, to realize their
highest value for residence purposes
The accompanying plan seems to us to
be we'll adapted to accomplish that end.
and also to provide beautiful shore drive
and promenade for the beneit of all the
people of Portland aud Deering. By
raising and widening the proposed dyke
complete circuit drive and promenade
three miles long may be formed sur
rounding tho proposed salt water pond,
which would be one mile long and two
thirds OF q mile wide, and would cover
1856 acres. The main approaches to this
circuit shore drive would be from Forest
Avenue at Bedford street on the west
and from the Deering end of Tukey's
Bridge on the cast. At four places on
the Deering side of the Cove there are
salt inlets with more OF less flats and
marsh, and with such steep sides as to
make them unavailable for building pur-
poses at reasonable cost. We have, con-
sequently, planned to preserve these as
opon spaces, the marshes to be dredged
-;+I> -,
banks to be planted where they are not
already covered with trees Much of that
portion of the circuit drive which lies i'll
the city of Deering is designed to be
on low grade. especially near the two
main approaches abovo referred to, and
these parts would ba formed by filling
out from the present shore line. The
drive is, however. dssi gned to rise grad
ually to the top of the bluff nearest to
Ocean street in Dsering, in order to give
an available frontage for house sites of
moderate size. In this way, also, the
monotony of level shore drive will be
avoided and, at the same time. q consider
able economy in construction will be
secured so that if desired, that portion of
the drive and the land fronting upon 1t
may be made available for immediate
use at little EXPENSE Where the drive is
planned to be below the bluff from the
clay pits to the little cove west of Main
street the land is held for largo residence
estates, which will lot need numerous
opportunities for private driving conneo-
tions with the shore drive. From the
little cove above referred to, eastward to
Tukey's bridge, street has already been
laid out along the top of the bluff, which
will afford an outlet for the humorous
small house sites already sold, or to be
sold, on this land. 1t will, therefore,
cost less for land damages to have the
shore drive below the bluff. Tho bluff
can be planted SO as to form a beautiful
back ground for the drive. On the side OF
Back Cove nearest Forest Avenue, the
shore drive is designed to be built out
side of the present shore line and on a
low grade, in order to save land DANA
GEES 1t is question, however, whether
it would not be wiser for the city of
Deering, perhaps in cooperation with