Infrastructure to Nowhere (The Vestigial Infrastructure Thread)

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393b40

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I figured we should have a thread for pieces of functional infrastructure that exist in the Boston Metro that really don't seem to serve any purpose possibly because they're just legacy holdovers that never got torn down or whatever was there became overgrown and forgotten. That said these pieces of infrastructure are NOT abandoned or closed to the public they just don't really do anything... useful.

So one I came across recently that I had not noticed. On a drive in on Route 2 there is this elevated walking path over Rt2 before the famous Alewife intersection. I live in this area now and frequently run and was trying to figure out how to get to this thing from the Arlington / Thorndike Field side of Route 2. I haven't gone out on foot to explore fully yet but there doesn't seem to be anything connecting the other side to anything useful (maybe there's a back path to Thorndike Field I can't see?). Later this week I'm gonna approach it from the Cambridge side. I'm kinda hesitant to climb it because it looks rusted as fuck.

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I'm sure there are quite a few others kicking around. Post 'em.
 
393b40 said:
I figured we should have a thread for pieces of functional infrastructure that exist in the Boston Metro that really don't seem to serve any purpose possibly because they're just legacy holdovers that never got torn down or whatever was there became overgrown and forgotten. That said these pieces of infrastructure are NOT abandoned or closed to the public they just don't really do anything... useful.

So one I came across recently that I had not noticed. On a drive in on Route 2 there is this elevated walking path over Rt2 before the famous Alewife intersection. I live in this area now and frequently run and was trying to figure out how to get to this thing from the Arlington / Thorndike Field side of Route 2. I haven't gone out on foot to explore fully yet but there doesn't seem to be anything connecting the other side to anything useful (maybe there's a back path to Thorndike Field I can't see?). Later this week I'm gonna approach it from the Cambridge side. I'm kinda hesitant to climb it because it looks rusted as fuck.

www.google.com

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Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com www.google.com

I'm sure there are quite a few others kicking around. Post 'em.
Click to expand...
Looking at a 1978 aerial photo on Historic Aerials, I can barely see the outline of a pullout for a bus stop on westbound Rte 2, so I'm guessing the ped overpass was for access to the bus stop from the south side of Route 2.
 
Charlie_mta said:
Looking at a 1978 aerial photo on Historic Aerials, I can barely see the outline of a pullout for a bus stop on westbound Rte 2, so I'm guessing the ped overpass was for access to the bus stop from the south side of Route 2.
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Yeah, that's why the overpass seems useless now but it was solely for accessing a bus stop on Route 2.
 
Charlie_mta said:
Looking at a 1978 aerial photo on Historic Aerials, I can barely see the outline of a pullout for a bus stop on westbound Rte 2, so I'm guessing the ped overpass was for access to the bus stop from the south side of Route 2.
Click to expand...

Interesting, but also curious why the overpass hasn't been taken down or at least blocked off. There's a good chance that thing has not been maintained in any kind of way in decades. Do we have any way to lookup when the last time a bus might have had a stop on the WB side?
 
393b40 said:
Interesting, but also curious why the overpass hasn't been taken down or at least blocked off. There's a good chance that thing has not been maintained in any kind of way in decades. Do we have any way to lookup when the last time a bus might have had a stop on the WB side?
Click to expand...
I grew up right near there, but by 1978 I was gone. I'm guessing that when the Alewife Red Line station opened in 1985, they did away with the westbound Route 2 bus stop because the south side of Route 2 was within walking distance of the new Alewife Red Line station.
 
393b40 said:
I figured we should have a thread for pieces of functional infrastructure that exist in the Boston Metro that really don't seem to serve any purpose possibly because they're just legacy holdovers that never got torn down or whatever was there became overgrown and forgotten. That said these pieces of infrastructure are NOT abandoned or closed to the public they just don't really do anything... useful.
Click to expand...

I could be misremembering it. I'm the type that tries really hard to make sure my memory is corroborated with some kind of evidence but right now my attempt to verify seems to go against this memory... but that preface said... I think I used it organically.

Back in the mid-2000s, I was still a high schooler but manage to have some friends from some other high schools. One day we gathered up and decided to go bowling. To get to it, we climbed over the highway barrier and went over via the footbridge to reached the bowling alley.

But checking the earliest Google Streetview image (2007), I can't say I can corroborate this memory with thing the images that would say why we would be on that side of RT 2 in the first place and thus have to use the footbridge (though the later clearer images at least seem to imply the bridge was still open making it plausible).
 
The stop by the pedestrian bridge actually lasted for quite a long time: you can see it in Milesintransit's reviews of the Route 2 buses and on the old MBTA schedule pages. You've also got a pretty old Reddit mention, though I'm annoyed I can't find any direct mention (stop page, route page, alerts page) on the MBTA website archived.
 
It was active in my commuting lifetime, pretty sure into the 2000s at least. Almost nobody ever stopped there, although a number of people intending to signal the stop at Lake St pushed the button early, casing the driver to pull into it, then grouse a bit about having to pull back into the Rt 2 traffic rapidly accelerating from the lights at Alewife Brook Parkway.
 
In any case, it seems obvious to take it down if it's completely unused - at its age it probably poses a safety hazard and it costs money to inspect it to make sure it's not going to drop chunks of concrete on passing traffic.
 
Arenacale said:
I guess it's useful as parking, but this little bit of W 6th St. in Southie that goes to a bridge that never existed. Was always weird to pass it as a kid...
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West 6th, Gold, Silver, Athens, and Bolton all used to have bridges until circa 1990. Many of the abutments are still there:

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I grew up in Arlington and remember sometime in the 60's or 70's I heard the reason the overpass was built was that kids were getting hit by cars running across the road to get to the bowladrome.
 
Screenshot_2023-04-03-13-16-43-48_3d9111e2d3171bf4882369f490c087b4.jpg
 
The Mishawum commuter rail stop on the Lowell line. Trains haven't stopped there since COVID I believe.
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Honestly with the new Woburn village development the T may want to look at reopening that stop.
 
393b40 said:
Interesting, but also curious why the overpass hasn't been taken down or at least blocked off. There's a good chance that thing has not been maintained in any kind of way in decades. Do we have any way to lookup when the last time a bus might have had a stop on the WB side?
Click to expand...

That stop was still on the books + still had a sign posted until within the past 5-10 years or so. If you're looking at Street View note that the stop/signpost was in that little pull-off about 250ft back from the bridge itself, was still there through the Aug 2015 streetview, gone by the Sept 2017 one. I'd suspect that (at least in the past when the vegetation was somewhat maintained) it was sometimes used as a cut-through to Thorndike Field.

If it actually had a sidewalk from it to the old stop + waiting area and didn't look like a deathtrap, I'd imagine it would probably see some use now with all the new development over there. Alewife to there is a least a half mile, and if it was pouring rain or something I'd certainly rather...not walk that far, and bus service at peak is decent enough.
 
The Boston and Mystic Valley Railroad was an 1870s attempt by the Boston and Maine Railroad to steal suburban traffic from rival Boston and Lowell Railroad. It would have split from the B&M mainline (now the Haverhill Line) near Assembly Square, paralleled the B&L through Medford, Winchester, and Woburn, and rejoined the B&M at North Wilmington. A not-insignificant amount of grading was completed. A substantial section from Woburn Center to North Woburn was reused in the 1880s as the Woburn Loop and saw commuter service until 1959. Several other sections are still visible:
Several other never-were railroads exist across Massachusetts: the Lancaster Railroad (completed but never opened), the Hampden Railroad (same), the Southern New England (never completed, but massive grading and bridge abutments remain), and the original alignment of the Central Massachusetts Railroad (never completed; much of the grading is under the Quabbin, though some is visible). Some grading of an extension of the Medford Branch to Stoneham was completed, but seems to have been obliterated by development in the 160 years hence. Of the numerous proposed railroads and streetcar lines that were never built, a few are rumored to have gotten some grading done, but I don't know of any that are confirmed or still visible.
 
The approach road off the rotary in Gloucester was supposed to be for an extension of Rte 128 to Rockport, but was cancelled. So it was repurposed as a driveway into a small development. However, it has all been configured to allow the road extension to Rockport to be built someday, though I doubt if it ever will be.
 
Bunch of good posts though none quite hitting the mark like the overpass... it's a functional overpass that just doesn't do anything useful. A lot of this other stuff is historical holdovers from things that were cancelled or actually abandoned are are blocked off to the public now or repurposed for DPW etc use (e.g. the NE expressway stuff).

BeyondRevenue said:
I wonder if this definition applies:
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Interesting...
 
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