The citizens responded to this invitation in great numbers. A procession, more than a mile in length, and escorted by the National Lancers, moved from the City Hall through Main Street, over West Boston Bridge, through Cambridge Street, Bowdoin Square, Green and Seventh streets, over Canal Bridge, through Bridge, Cambridge, Fifth, Otis, and Third streets, Broadway, North Avenue, and Waterhouse, Garden, Harvard, and Main Streets, to the City Hall, where a collation was served, and congratulations were exchanged. In the procession was the venerable Moses Hadley, who had been toll-gatherer on West Boston Bridge more than fifty-four years. The procession was saluted with hearty cheers at many places; and it did not forget to halt at the Washington Elm, while the Band gave enthusiastic expression to Washington's Grand March.
Not only the River Street and Western Avenue bridges, but most of the thoroughfares through the city, which were opened during many years, were constructed for the benefit of West Boston or Canal Bridge. Main Street, eastward from Columbia Street, was originally a causeway, built in connection with West Boston Bridge;2 and River Street and Western Avenue were built in connection with the bridges bearing the same names, as already described. Concord Avenue was originally the easterly end of the Cambridge and Concord Turnpike, for which a charter was granted March 8, 1803;3 it was laid out as a free highway in May, 1829. By an act passed March 8, 1805, the Cambridge and Concord Turnpike Corporation was authorized to extend their road from its eastern termination, “near to the house of Jonas Wyeth in Cambridge, to the causeway of West Boston Bridge, near the house of Royal Makepeace.” 4 This portion
