The completion of the Charles River Dam Bridge on June 30, 1910, created the Charles River Basin and gave Boston the waterway that is now integral to our urban experience. What had been a tidal estuary at the end of the 80-mile river now shelters rowing and yacht clubs, one of the world’s largest public sailing programs, and the barge from which Boston’s iconic Fourth of July fireworks are launched. — Lane Turner
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The Boston Globe
Every day was race day for the model yachts in the lagoon of the Charles River, and Oct. 6, 1935, was no different. The Boston Model Yacht Club, founded in the 1920s, began using the Storrow lagoon in the mid-1930s and it was known as one of the most prestigious model yacht lagoons in the United States. Club racing generally opened in mid-April and lasted until November.
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The Boston Globe
Single scullers watched the finish of the varsity race in the Compton Cup regatta on the Charles River on May 3, 1941. The Harvard Crimson shell (left) was victorious, the Princeton boat (center) finished second, and MIT(right) finished third. Named for the late Karl T. Compton, former president of MIT, the regatta began in 1933.
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The Boston Globe
Metropolitan Police boats patrolled the Charles River on July 3, 1949, in advance of the opening of the 21st season of Esplanade concerts on July 4th. Governor Paul Dever addressed the opening night crowd welcoming them to the Esplanade. Estimates placed the attendance in the vicinity of 20,000 and the fireworks were launched from the Boston Common.
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Laurence Lowry/Boston Globe archive
Aerial view of the Charles River Basin made on Aug. 8, 1954.
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The Boston Globe
Summer traffic was bumper-to-bumper as 32 boats moved through the locks at the Charles River Basin on July 17, 1966. In the control tower, Salvatore Albondi of Nahant operated the locks, which handled 300-400 boats on a busy weekend and 3,500 in a month like July.
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Joe Dennehy / Globe Staff
Susan Keane of Cambridge sailed on the Charles on the evening of July 12, 1967. Few large cities at this time had such beautiful and accessible sailing as the Charles River Basin. Community boating was the only program in the country where a fleet of sailboats and instruction were made available at nominal rates to both adults and youngsters and membership was open to all, regardless of residence.
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Ellis Herwig / Globe Staff
Photo taken at 3:50 p.m. on Feb. 5, 1970, looked toward the southwest over the Science Museum and toward the Prudential Tower, which is obscured in the center background. Visibility was reduced in the metropolitan area by a combination of natural haze and sulfur dioxide. It mixed with soot and fly ash to capture water droplets which magnified their visibility.
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John Blanding/Globe staff
Concertgoers in motor boats, rowboats, and canoes listened as John Williams debuted his first evening as conductor of the Boston Pops on July 4, 1980. Williams played his Darth Vader theme "Imperial March" and “Yoda's theme,” both from the just-released film, "The Empire Strikes Back."
