Five Interesting Facts about BOSTON

I saw this from my friend Lauren's blog the other day, and find it really interesting. She shared with us some interesting facts about Boston, which still amazes me after a year's stay in the beautiful city. (If you want to read the post, click here). I've quoted three from Lauren, and added some I found from the Web. Enjoy.

From Lauren:
1. A three-story parking garage, that can hold roughly 2000 cars can be found underneath Boston Common.

And what's more amazing to me is that once you park and lock your car, you take an elevator up to ground level and walk out through one of the 4 small kiosks (shown on right) that provide pedestrian access to the parking garage, which otherwise is invisible. They have tried everything to preserve the natural beauty of the park by keeping the artificial building invisible

2. The nickname "Beantown" was given to the city by sailors because the smell of cooking beans would waft into the harbor.
This is new to me, and I can slowly connect it with a lot that's going on in the town, say the college hockey game between the big four Boston University, Northeastern University, Boston College, and Harvard University-- the "Beanpot" hockey game. (BTW BU claimed the 2009 Beanpot Title!)

 3.The Freedom Trail changes - not frequently, but it has. It once ran down Spring Lane passing the site of the fresh spring that enabled puritans to settle in Boston.

I'd like to walk around the "changing" freedom trail sometime in the fall when the weather is cooler and nicer.

Here some of the other interesting facts I found about Boston:

4. The famous "Citgo" sign in Kenmore Square contains five miles of neon tubing.
Really!? It's a sign I see every day when I go to my college, I know it looks good at night, but the fact that the neon tubing is as long as 5 miles still strike me a little bit. I'd definitely take a closer look at that in the future.

5. The Big Dig created about 80 miles of underground lanes in a 7.5-mile corridor.

Big Dig is the most expensive highway project in the U.S. history, costing about $2.8 billion in 1985. But in my opinion, it still didn't do much to change the city's overall bad traffic. (especially during game times in downtown).


I'm sure there will be more interesting facts about the city as I stay here longer. And I hope you find the city more interesting after viewing it. Also, what do you want to know more about Boston? Feel free to leave a comment, and hope to see you here in Boston!