Too Big for Massachusetts?

In the late 1800s the city of Boston was in grid lock on the city streets. The Massachusetts Transit Commission found that over 63,000 people daily got on or off the street cars between West Street and Bromfield Street on Tremont Street. They solved the problem by building the first subway system in America, the third in the world.

• First subway in America, built 1897

• Filling of the Back Bay, started in 1858 and ended in 1894. Trains ran from Needham to Boston hauling gravel seven days a week for over forty years.

• Raising of Bay Village in 1860s . Over 500 structures raised over 10 feet to permit drainage of sewage

• Middlesex Canal built in 1803 from Lowell to Boston with 20 locks, 8 aqueducts and 48 bridges. 27 miles long to move goods from Lowell to port of Boston

• Wachusett Reservoir, built in 1906 to supply water to Boston. It was the largest reservoir in the world when built.

• Quabbin Reservoir. When Wachusett looked to be insufficient the Commonwealth build the Quabbin Reservoir in 1927. Still one of the largest in the world, it covers 39 square miles of land, holds over 400 billion gallons of water.

• Hoosac Rail Tunnel. Built in 1875 in western Massachusetts, it is a 4.75-mile active railroad tunnel. At its completion, the tunnel was the world's second-longest and was the longest tunnel in North America until 1916. It remains the longest active transportation tunnel east of the Rocky Mountains, and as of 1989 is the sixth longest railroad tunnel in North America.

• Quabbin Water Tunnel Built in 1897–1905 it delivers the water from the Quabbin Reservoir to Boston and is 24.6 miles long. 

• Deer Island Outfall Tunnel. It was built in 2000 and is 9.5 miles long. It discharges sewage effluent into the ocean.

The City of Boston, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its business community have never shied away from the new, the large, or the difficult.

Our history shows that whether it is a problem to be solved, a project needed to be competitive or a chance to be a leader, we have risen to the occasion.

This is one of those projects.

An East/West high-speed rail line is a vital economic need that only looks daunting because of the use of tunnels. The tunnels in fact make the project viable.

The TMTs are not any more ambitious than some of these other projects were in their time.