The roads on the river banks were improved at the beginning of the 20th century to provide a continuous route through the park.

[5] The Charles River parkways were laid out in concept in a plan developed by landscape architect Charles Eliot for the Metropolitan Parks Commission (MPC, predecessor to the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), now the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, or DCR).

The western portion of Soldiers Field Road was one of the first to be built, as part of the Charles River Speedway, an early racing oval, between 1899 and 1910.

Leo Birmingham Boulevard was completed in 1936, as a bypass around a slaughterhouse on the river that the MDC had been unable to acquire.

Recreation Road has since been impacted by the construction of both Interstate 95 and the Massachusetts Turnpike, which have cut off elements of the waterfront from land access.