Long Island (Massachusetts)

In October 2014, all access to Long Island was cut off for the indefinite future by then Mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, based on the warning of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation that the bridge was unsafe.

On April 19, 1649, the Court in Boston levied an annual rent of 6 pence per acre on the farms on Long Island with payment due on February 1 each year.

The deed described their property as having houses, outhouses, barns, stables, wharfs, yards, orchards, gardens, meadows, pastures, and fishing rights.

[8] On October 6, 1676, during the panic caused by King Philip's War, Massachusetts residents collected all of the local Native American population from the surrounding towns and herded them to a dock in Watertown on the Charles River.

On April 19, 1689, John Nelson, a resident of Long Island, led Bostonians in a revolt against Governor Sir Edmund Andros, culminating in the Battle of Fort Hill[9] in Boston.

During 1690, John Nelson bought all of the property from the tenants on Long Island with the exception of 4.5 acres (18,000 m2) owned by Thomas Stanberg, a shopkeeper from Boston.

The deed described the island as containing 200 acres (0.8 km2) of land, single houses, buildings, barns, stables, orchards, gardens, pastures, fences, trees, woods, underwoods, swamps, marshes, meadows, arable land, ways, water courses, easements, commons, common pasture, passages, stones, beach, flats, immunites, commodies, heriditaments, emoulants, and appurtenances.

On July 12, 1775, Colonel John Greaton with a detachment of 500 American soldiers, in 65 whaleboats, raided Long Island where they "liberated" all the sheep and cattle grazing there, and captured 17 British sailors who were guarding the animals.

A British schooner, towing barges loaded with armed marines, chased the American whaleboats back to their encampment in Squantum and Dorchester.

Abigail Adams, from her vantage point in a part of Braintree that is now Quincy, described the sight of the myriad masts of the British fleet as like a forest in the harbor.

On board the British ships were 11,000 soldiers and sailors and 1019 self-exiled citizens of Boston, including 102 civil officers, 18 clergymen and 105 loyalists from the country towns.

The Arbella was on an approach to Boston Harbor and beat off the initial attack, escaping up Nantasket Roads into the channel off the East Head of Long Island.

They found that the Arbella had grounded but was still able to fight, as her guns shattered Tucker's spars and riddled his ship's sails and Pine Tree Flag.

On July 17, 1776, about a month after the British were driven from the outer harbor, the Long Island Battery on East Head fired a thirteen-gun salute in celebration and honor of the promulgation of the Declaration of Independence.

Edward Rowe Snow related a story about a Mary, the wife of a Tory, William Burton, who was aboard one of the British ships that formed the blockade on Boston Harbor, together with her husband.

Long Island was on the verge of being developed, but an ominous rumor about a pending takeover by the City of Boston for its various institutions made this real estate undesirable to investors.

Over the next 35 years, the heirs of Nicholas Capello and other friends increased the population of Long Island to over thirty families clustering in an area called "Portuguese Village".

Sweetser described Long Island as conspicuous by its municipal buildings, and still more by its lighthouse perched on the very tip of the steepest cliff in the harbor, eighty-feet above the high-water mark and visible for fifteen miles (24 km) at sea.

The battery, which crowns the cliff, presenting only a range of green mounds to the view of the passing sailor, is a formidable little work, of modern construction, with walls of great thickness, bombproofs, and other defenses, partly separated from the rest of the bluff by a deep dry moat.

Work continued on the 3-inch gun positions on the east and west sides of the parade ground (Batteries Taylor, Basinger, Smyth, and Stevens).

[17] The fort, which had previously consisted of a battery of muzzle-loading cannon atop the northeastern head of the island,[18] was now equipped with the latest in coast artillery, as part of nationwide improvements in coastal defense capabilities recommended by the Endicott Board.

In the 1950s, two buildings supporting the Nike missile system (since decommissioned) were built on the island, and a target tracking radar was constructed at the northwest end of the North Head, in one of the former gun positions of Battery Drum.

The dedication plaque at the outbound entry to this bridge at Squantum, says it was built in 1950-51 by the Institutions Department of the City of Boston, and calls it the "Long Island Viaduct".

There was also a working organic farm which was 2 acres (8,100 m2) large and harvested approximately 25,000 pounds of produce which was used by the kitchens of the homeless shelters, sold at farmers markets, and used by restaurants in Boston.

Since that day the lobster has become a creature of fashion, contributing largely to the high cost of livers, but his name finds no greater favor as an epithet than when used for the patriotic purpose of starting a pre-Revolutionary rumpus.

The lobster fleet, consisting of many small craft, mostly power driven, should interest the gourmet who likes to know the origin of his delicacies; to the gourmand, we recommend the satisfying qualities of Boston baked beans and the New England boiled dinner.

He was finally released, and on his return to Long Island the Nelson family gave him a great feast of welcome, and part of the table-cloth is believed still to be preserved by his descendants.

The British pastured cattle here at one time, and a detachment of five hundred Continental soldiers, in sixty-five whale-boats, landed and stole them all, escaping safely to Squantum.

Standing on a weatherworn stage framed by faded crimson curtains, the seven members of Dropkick Murphys are arrayed in stark tableau, black clad and casting long shadows on the piles of junk behind them.

They're here to film the video for "The State of Massachusetts," the single from their new album, The Meanest of Times (Born & Bred, released on September 18), and as tall Tim Brennan plucks a tricky Celtic melody on his banjo, they lurch into motion.Bibliography