st them on
account of the roughness of the sea-air, and the wash from their bluffs
into the harbour has involved large expense in the erection of
sea-walls. Castle Island has been fortified since the earliest days;
Fort Independence, on this island, and Forts Winthrop and Warren on
neighbouring islands, constitute permanent harbour defences. The broad
watercourses around the peninsula are spanned by causeways and bridges,
East Boston only, that the harbours may be open to the navy-yard at
Charlestown, being reached by ferry (1870), and by the electric subway
under the harbour. At the Charlestown navy-yard (1800) there are docks,
manufactories, foundries, machine-shops, ordnance stores, rope-walks,
furnaces, casting-pits, timber sheds, ordnance-parks, ship-houses, &c.
The famous frigate "Independence" was launched here in 1814, the more
famous "Constitution" having been launched while the yard was still
private in 1797. The first bridge over the Charles, to Charlestown, was
opened in 1786. The bridge of chief artistic merit is the Cambridge
Bridge (1908), which replaced the old West Boston Bridge, and is one
feature of improvements long projected for the beautifying of the
Charles river basin.

Comparatively few relics of the early town have been spared by time and
the improvements of the modern city. Three cemeteries remain
intact--King's chapel burying ground, with the graves of John Winthrop
and John Cotton; the Old Granary burial ground in the heart of the city,
where Samuel Sewall, the parents of Franklin, John Hancock, James Otis
and Samuel Adams are buried; and Copp's Hill burial ground, containing
the tombs of the Mathers. Christ church (1723) is the oldest church of
the city; in its tower the signal lanterns were displayed for Paul
Revere on the night of the 18th of April 1775. The Old South church
(1730-1782), the old state house (1748, restored 1882), and Faneuil Hall
(1762-1763, enlarged 1805, reconstructed 1898) are rich in memorable
associations of the period preceding the War of Independence. The second
was the seat of the royal government of Massachusetts during the
provincial period, and within its walls from 1760 to 1775 the questions
of colonial dependence or independence probably first came into evident
conflict. The Old South church has many associations; it was, for
instance, the meeting-place of the people after the "Boston Massacre" of
1770, when they demanded the removal of the British troops fro