Billerica, Mass.
By: Tim Sanderson
From: Billerica, MA
By: Tim Sanderson
From: Billerica, MA
Most towns have a famous person or building. My town has a famous canal. The Middlesex Canal. It is 27 miles long and 30 feet wide. It was used mainly to transport freight between the Merrimack River, northwest of Boston and Charlestown, slightly north of Boston. It was in existance between 1803 and 1853. It took 10 years of hand digging at a cost of $528,000. The canal also transported people on a special passenger boat called the "Washington" for a fee of 4 cents per mile. The boat left Middlesex Village every Thursday at 8:00 am and arrived in Charlestown just before nightfall. The boats were pulled by horses walking on a footpath alongside the canal. It was said that boys were hired to thow apples to the horses to hurry them along on hot summer days. The canal met its demise in 1851 by the introduction of the Boston and Lowell Railroad. Ironically, the railroad ties and locomotive parts used to build the railroad were hauled by barges on the Middlesex Canal. A song called "Haulin down to Boston on the Middlesex Canal" was popular.
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