Boston In One Day

Boston is a historic city and a single day in this New England seaport can be a day well spent. Although you will not be able to immerse yourself in all that Boston has to offer, thanks to its compact nature you can see some of the sites that should not be missed by any visitor with a little time on their hands. Many of Boston’s most important cultural centers and historic sites are clustered near enough together to make taking a self-guided tour an easy affair.

Freedom Trail

Laid down to guide visitors on a tour of some of Boston’s most historic places is the red-brick path known as the Freedom Trail. Running for 2.5 miles from Boston Commons to Bunker Hill, the Freedom Trail passes by no less than 16 historic sites in American history.

Historic Sites

Visit the Old State House, the site of the incendiary Boston Massacre, where British Redcoats fired into a crowd of protesting American colonists, killing five and fueling the start of the American Revolution. Pass by the Old North Church, the spire made famous for the warning provided by the hanging of two lanterns to notify minutemen of a seaward approach by the British army. Henry Longfellow’s subsequent poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride” would immortalize the line “One if by land, two if by sea,” which has come to be memorized by American schoolchildren ever since.

Visit Bunker Hill

The Freedom trail continues on to Bunker Hill, a Revolutionary War battlefield that affords a panoramic view of the city. It was on this site, and nearby Breeds Hill, on a June day in 1775 that an American commander gave the order to his inexperienced militia to “not fire until they could see the whites of their eyes.” The resulting battle gave the young American Army the confidence to fight on for independence, despite the death of their General, the Patriot Dr. Joseph Warren. Visit the 221-foot-tall granite monument erected in 1842 to his sacrifice and that of hundreds of other patriots who fell during the battle.

Harvard Square

Visit the Campus of Harvard University for a glimpse into the life of this bohemian section of the Boston area. Bookshops and quirky stores line Harvard Square, and tours of the campus and surrounding area are available. Photograph some of the spires and towers that make up the famous architecture of this historic campus.

Waterfront

Much of Boston’s character and place in history have been a result of its lying on a large natural harbor. Tour Boston’s waterfront by meandering some of the over 40 miles of pedestrian- and bike-friendly pathways. Visit the U.S.S. Constitution, a historic sailing frigate that defied the British during the War of 1812, earning the nickname of “Old Ironsides” along the way. Now, it is a first rate museum of naval history. This area is also home to Boston’s food truck scene, so something good to eat is always at hand.

A day in Boston can give a visitor a sense of the unique place the city holds in American history, as well as its current identity as a busy and modern world city.

Image via Flickr by Jeff Gunn under use of CC BY 2.0

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