The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-14

Boston, Jan. 10. 19o5.--CuriQnSly enough Boston's latest step in the marcn of modern progress. the opening Of the hast Boston tunnel as one more extension of the city's remarkable transportation system,i IS the means or preserving one of the last of the Puri- tan capitals famous historical land marks. the Old State House at the head Of state Street where 1t touches Wash- ingtvn Street. The lower story of this quaint old structure mas now become a great underground passenger station for the tube under the harbor by which the rapid transit lines of the island suburbs of Last Boston and Winthrop have just been connected with the ele- vated, subway and surface car systems of the mainland.
 Probably no building in the country has older or, in certain way, more tm- portant historical associations than this. As 1t is told on the two bronze tablets set in the passageway cut through the end of the ground floor of the building to give entrance to the underground car lines, this was. in 1884, the site of the. jublic market place; here, fh 1857. was erected Bos- ton's first town house. which was burned in I'll and replaced two years later by the present building. The Great and General Court and the royal governors under the first three Georges occupied these quarters while Massa- chusetts had a colonial government; in them John Hancock was inaugurat- ed first governor of the Commonwealth in 17S0 and the States General Court sat from then until i79S. From 1880 to 1889 the city government was in possession, and in recent years the up- per part of the building has contained the collections of the Boston Historical Society, as 1t will continue to do.
 The East Boston tunnel which has converted this ancient seat of govern ment to modern industrial uses is simply the newest branch of the, Boston Elevated Railway NCompany's system which serves practically the whole of greater Boston. It is not an extraord- inarily important branch, except to the ctty's retaehed ward across the harbor. which heretofore has been dependent entirely on ferry boats. with the conse- Quent delays and discomforts of such means of transportation. Already work has been started on tn eeonstruction of tunnel running the length of the city's congested district in whic will be put the trains of the elevated lines. now carried through the same territory by the old Subway which was the first underground road built in this country. Very shortly the construction of a con- joined subway and elevated line to af- ford more rapid transit between Boston and Cambridge will begin. But the East Boston tunnel is interesting as the first of the lateral arms, stretching out from the main system, by which the local transportation management plans to solve what is possibly the most diff ficult problem of its kind any commu- nity has to meet
 As railroad station the old State House becomes an integral part of the most remarkable network of transpor- tation lines and terminals in the Unit ed States, and probably in the world. Greater Boston, as distinct from the in corporated city of Boston, Is very much scattered community of upwards of two million people, hundreds of thousands of whom travel every work ing morning into town" and every evening out home again. No other city In the land has relatively such large proportion of commuters; fully 750,- 900 men and women pass in and out of the street and steam railroad sta tions of the city each day--a total of not less than 325 million a year. Then, too, Boston has become the channel of a surprising vacation traffic that is brought into New England from the
  flows outward from the Hub to every corner of the whole New England coast.
 For handling this enormous passen- ger proposition in safety and comfort surprisingly adequate facilities have been developed. Honors rest easy with the stations of the Boston Elevated Railway, to the list of, which the Old State House adds a new interest, in rega4d to the total number of passen- laWa subway station alone, the busiest of all of Boston's ''depots," though of only moderate physical dimensions, ranks third among the railway stations of the world fin the amount of traffic handled, for it Is used by more ethan 30.0OO, 900 people in year, being surpassed in the volume of business done only by two In London. On an average 95,0OO people take or leave cars, or transfer from one car to another, at Park Street on every week day of the three hundred and sixty-five.
 Notable also because of the amount of their business. and particularly be- cause they differ from anything else in the country, are the two great termi- nuses of the present elevated lines which extend north and south from the Subway, by means of which their tracks are carried through Boston's congested district. These two great clearing houses of travel constitute in effect central stations at which con verging lines of surface cars connect for the most part on the same elevated level-with elevated trains.
 The terminal at Dudley Street, in Roxbury, particularly. presented pecu- liar engineering difficulties which 1t needed great skill to overcome. Twen- ty lines Of surface cars came together at this strategic point from three dif- ferent directions, while the plan of the streets in the neiBhborhood is full of perplexing irregularities. In the final solution. the elevated structure was carried around a loop and through the middle of the trainshed. while the sur