THE CHARLES RIVER DAM

On Friday the joint commission of the Massachusetts Legislature, made up of the Committee on Metropolitan Affairs, and the Committee on Harbors and Public Lands, Will give a hearing on the project of building a dam across the Charles River near Craigie Bridge. In connection with the building of this dam a committee composed of sixteen prominent citizens of Boston, Cambridge, Newton and Watertown has asked the legislature to provide for the appointment of a special commission to work out the details and report to the next General Court the probable cost of a project which, if in can be carried out will give to Boston a beautiful water park, a feature of attractiveness superior to anything of its kind to be found on the American Continent. Such a park, which will rival the finest water park of Europe, the famous Alster Basin of Hamburg, can be laid out in the Back Bay at a comparatively little expense.

The Committee which is promoting this project is composed of the following men: H. L. Higginson h'82, Augustus Hemenway '75, N. Matthews, Jr., '75, J. A. Mead, M.D., '78 G. W. Weld '06, J. J. Storrow '85, E. G. Cutler, M. D., '68, J. G. Blake, M. D., 61, E. H. Bradford, M. D., 69, J. F. Fitzgerald, G. Howland Cox, S. F. Hubbard, E. D. Mead, A. L. Davison, H. E. Cobb, A. F. Sortwell.

It seems desirable at this time to publish an authentic statement of just what this project consists. Its main feature, namely, to erect dam in the Charles River in the vicinity of Craigie Bridge is not new. In 1894, in a report made by a joint board consisting of the Metropolitan Park Commission and the State Board of Health, it was proposed to build a dam near Craigie Bridge. That the recommendation of the joint board were not then carried out was due almost entirely to the vigorous opposition of certain residents of the north side of Beacon Street, whose objection grew out of the proposal to pay for the dam by filling in the basin in he rear of their houses so as to create land on which a new row of houses could be built. The plan now put forward does not contain this obviously objectionable feature. It is opposed to any filling in of the basin except such moderate strip as may be necessary to change the present unsightly alley in the rear of the water side of Beacon street into an attractive esplanade or parkway. In nearly every feature this plan is essentially different from any of the schemes which have preceded it.

It is not intended in the new plan to change the salt basin of the Back Bay into a fresh water pond. Instead of an old style dam of rigid construction, the new plan suggests the erection of a folding or collapsible dam similar to dams which have been successfully operated in the Ohio River and the River Thames in England. The folding dams constructed by the United States Government in the Ohio are so arranged that by simple mechanism the whole structure can be laid flat below the level of the lower sill, so that ice can pass out and the water flow unimpeded as if no dam existed. Thus, by emptying the basin and filling it again on the night tides, all the beauties of a lake can be obtained without changing to any appreciable extent the present degree of saltiness of the water in the Back Bay basin.

The Promoters of the plan intend to make every effort to solve the question of objectionable drainage in the river, and have competent engineering authority that the sewers which now drain into the river can be connected with the Metropolitan system at a small expense.

The present projects is not open to a single objection that was seriously urged against the plan of 1894. In that year it was argued before the Earbor and Land commission, by eminent counsel who were retained to prevent the erection of new houses back of Beacon street, that any stopping of the ebb of the tide from the Charles River Basin twice daily would injure certain channels of the harbor, but in opposition to this contention several of the most eminent engineers of the state have expressed the opinion that the tidal scour theory has no application to the conditions which exist in those channels of Boston Harbor over which the tidal prism of the Charles river Basin moves.

The committee in charge have brought this movement to the stage of having their petition heard before two important committees of the legislature. There remains to insure the practical progress of this great improvement the engineering plans and estimates which can be secured only by a special commission appointed for the purpose. Some people, however, may have the impression that a somewhat similar investigation was made in certain hearings held before the Harbor and Land Commission in 1894, but since the present project is so radically different from the one then considered, and since so many and important changes have taken place in the conditions which bear on the practicability of this scheme, it seems reasonable after the lapse of over six years to ask for this new commission.

The chief changes which affect this problem and which have taken place in the last six years are the completion of the metropolitan sewer, whereby all sewage above the site of the proposed dam has been diverted from the Charles, thus rendering that river comparatively pure; and the giving up of the use of the river for purposes of commerce. All riparian rights on the Cambridge side and all but three wharf rights on the Boston side from the west Boston bridge to the Watertown dam have been purchased either by the cities along the river or by the Metropolitan Park Commission, and are new forever dedicated to park purposes. Moreover, a bill permitting the erection of a drawless bridge to replace the old West Boston bridge was recently passed by Congress, approved by the United States engineers and signed by the President. Within a year it will be impossible for vessels with masts to pass up the Charles River beyond the West Boston bridge.