Fresh Pond Parkway begins at a large interchange with Mount Auburn Street, a major east-west road in western Cambridge, and Gerry's Landing Road, which serves as the connection between the parkway and Memorial Drive, Greenough Boulevard, and the Eliot Bridge over the Charles River.

A median initially separates the north and southbound lanes, which gradually narrows to little more than a jersey barrier at the intersection with Brattle Street, about 0.25 miles (0.40 km) to the northwest.

The southern portion of the parkway is canopied by mature trees, and has concrete sidewalks on each side, separated by a narrow green strip.

In 1898 the Metropolitan Parks Commission, the predecessor of the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) and today's Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), began acquiring land for the parkway with the purchase of Lowell Park, formerly a portion of the Elmwood estate.

The connection of Gerry's Landing Road to Eliot Bridge, locally considered part of the parkway, was completed in 1958.

[3] As part of the construction of a new water purification plant on Fresh Pond, the northern section of the parkway was reconstructed.