Longfellow Bridge

Longfellow Bridge crosses the Charles River in Boston and connects the central part of the city with the Cambridge campus. It is an arched bridge with a width of 32 meters and a length of 539 meters, which is simultaneously railway, road and pedestrian. 11 steel arch spans are supported by stone supports. The length of the largest span in the middle of the bridge is 57.5 meters, and the height is 8.1 meters.

Locals call it the “bridge of salt shakers and peppers”, as the four turrets adorning the highest span of the bridge resemble huge salt shakers and peppers.

The first bridge on this site was built in 1793. The current bridge was built in 1906, which became known as Cambridge Bridge, and in 1927 was renamed Longfellow Bridge. Henry W. Longfellow was an eighteenth-century American poet who wrote the 1845 poem The Bridge, dedicated to the very first bridge over the Charles River.