Talk:Charlestown Bridge

Traffic configuration
Across the width of the bridge, there are three sections that appear to be able to carry traffic, which appear to be two lanes wide each. Yesterday evening, the middle section was closed off. Was the bridge constructed with the intent that there would be two northbound car lanes, two southbound car lanes, and two lanes of streetcar tracks? Or is this an intentional extra two lanes so that part of the bridge can be closed for maintenance? Or is the bridge configured for four lanes in the busy direction during rush hour?

(It should be noted that there is also a sidewalk on each side. The east side sidewalk is currently an open metal grid; you can look down and see the river under the grid.)  JNW2 19:10, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Still stand
This bridge wasn't demolished after Zakim bridge was complete?--I Am Nash (talk) 18:42, 7 December 2008 (UTC)
 * The Charlestown Bridge is a street bridge which connects local streets in the North End and Charlestown sections of Boston. Between the Zakim and Charlestown Bridges there was the elevated Central Artery Charles River double-deck highway bridge, which was demolished in 2004. A photo of that bridge can be found at http://www.masspike.com/bigdig/background/bridge.html, immediately to the left of the Zakim as it was under construction. The bridge described in this article is also visible in that photo, just beyond the old double-deck bridge. Sswonk (talk) 21:17, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
 * That's the Charlestown High Bridge that was replaced by the Zakim. -- Beland (talk) 04:33, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Photos
Many photos are out of copyright; see the External Links section for possible sources. -- Beland (talk) 04:33, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Possible future copy and photo
A few things that may possibly be of interest for which sources may be available:

The questions asked in the first talk page section regarding the lane configurations. To my knowledge the central (elevated streetcar) lanes are permanently closed but appear as though they may eventually become active to motorists, see Google Street View images to see what I mean.

The bridge is very heavily used by pedestrians for daily walking commutes, along with its status as part of the Freedom Trail.

The bridge is is used as a good vantage point for viewing harbor activities such as fireworks, tall ships and USS Constitution sailings when they occur.

What kind of photo is needed? I can try to take one this week, maybe from North End Playground? Sswonk (talk) 19:09, 14 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I was figuring to get there next weekend to check this bridge out, but perhaps you can save me the trouble. I'm on the Connecticut River, so it's a bit of a trek.
 * The best sources are likely in the state Transportation Library, which is only open during business hours, which is a problem for me. - Denimadept (talk) 19:30, 14 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I was actually thinking it would be neat to add some historic photographs, like the ones at the link above. For example, showing the elevated railway while it was still in place, or showing the old Charles River Bridge at this location. -- Beland (talk) 14:58, 17 June 2009 (UTC)


 * It would be neat, yes. See Boston's Bridges.  This person got images from various places, including the state Transportation Library.  If someone can get there, they'll have access to all sorts of sources useful for documenting any public works project in Massachusetts, I figure.  I'd like to save time and just copy the whole thing.  ...the library, that is, not the book. - Denimadept (talk) 15:17, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I didn't realize you were looking for historical photos. The one at top left below would still be a nice one for an infobox. I am available to take a trip to the Transportation Library via the T but it would be better if I had a little guidance on how to use the library resources, if it will save Denim having to use a day off. Let me know and I can also enable my email (briefly, I prefer to keep it closed) if you have a list of resources/requests. This is not a problem, I enjoy going into the city when I can so this is a good reason. Sswonk (talk) 20:14, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Both are good. The top left one is good for present-day.  But the reference to an image with the rail still present would be historical, no?  Also the one with the Warren Bridge still present. - Denimadept (talk) 20:31, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Images taken June 16, 2009
Sswonk (talk) 02:31, 17 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I rather like that top left one. Shows the structure, both top and bottom, with less distractions. - Denimadept (talk) 04:13, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Rail use
It should be mentioned that the reason for the strange shape of the trusswork is the result of the Boston Elevated Railway (later Orange line) which crossed the bridge above the road deck. Also, through the middle truss on the deck were the tracks for the Union Freight Railroad which ran along Atlantic Ave and served various industries along the waterfront. Parcanman (talk) 06:26, 28 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Well, it does include the following:
 * "It carried the Charlestown Elevated until the railway was demolished and re-routed in 1975."


 * If you want more, edit the article. Please include a cite, as well. - Denimadept (talk) 18:43, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

Requested move 13 March 2019

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

No consensus and keep the present title of this article; moved and disambiguate the second nomination with "DeWitt". As is usual with a no-consensus outcome, editors may strengthen their arguments and try again in a few months to garner consensus to rename this article. Kudos to editors for your input, and Happy Publishing! (nac by page mover)  Paine Ellsworth , ed. put'r there 18:42, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

– The bridge in Boston was renamed by the city in 1910 (see labeled page 4). The new name seems to be consistently used by the state and the city (including the mayor). Local media also uses the new name.
 * Charlestown Bridge → North Washington Street Bridge (Boston)
 * North Washington Street Bridge → North Washington Street Bridge (DeWitt)

Update: The Charlestown Bridge was also the name of a weekly newspaper serving this area, which merged to become the Charlestown Patriot-Bridge in 2005. This might result in some ambiguity when identifying usage of the name "Charlestown Bridge"; in fact, information about the newspaper and the bridge are conflated on several mapping/travel websites (see discussion).

The bridge in DeWitt, Arkansas is on the National Register of Historic Places. Its title needs to be disambiguated from the bridge in Boston. —Davidpward (talk) 05:27, 13 March 2019 (UTC) --Relisting.  SITH   (talk)   16:50, 23 March 2019 (UTC)

To perhaps state the comment appearing below this one a bit differently: why would there be many recent news articles from different sources that do not mention the name Charlestown Bridge at all, even parenthetically, if that is currently the most commonly recognized name for it? These are not press releases from the city or state; these are writings by independent journalists intended for consumption by the general public, even if some do include quotes from city/state officials. (This can be sharply contrasted with news coverage for at least the last decade about the Big Dig, which only occasionally includes the token reference to the "Central Artery/Tunnel Project".) There's a shared desire here to identify the common name for this article, although we seem to be arriving at it differently. To get closer to consensus, I think this discussion could benefit from more outside participation, but I'm not sure where to solicit that? —Davidpward (talk) 03:51, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Oppose [The Boston bridge move]: I suggest that people considering this proposal should be aware that the nominator made substantial changes to the article just in the last few days, to emphasize the proposed name and deprecate the current name. Here is what the article looked like five days ago. The article has been stable at its current title ever since it was created 12 years ago, and no one has ever even questioned the name on the Talk page. This makes me think that the WP:COMMONNAME might really be "Charlestown Bridge". The WP:OFFICIALNAME is less relevant. Although some sources have been identified that use the proposed name, it seems that may be the result of someone actively looking for uses of that name. Using the Google Ngram viewer, I found zero usage of the proposed name. Using Google Advanced Search for "Boston" together with the two phrases, I find 2.5 times as many hits for "Charlestown Bridge". And here is a link to that article by the Mayor with a different headline on it. Here is an article that puts "Charlestown Bridge" in its headline and uses the phrase "i.e., Charlestown Bridge" to explain what the official name is referring to. —BarrelProof (talk) 16:59, 13 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes, please be aware that I changed the article in the last few days in good faith. Before doing that, I briefly left a message on the talk page about the primary name, which didn't generate any response either way regarding the name. I could have gone further and moved this page without asking, but I wanted this discussion to take place, and I am glad that tagging this article has already generated feedback.—Davidpward (talk) 23:54, 13 March 2019 (UTC)
 * I did not mean to imply bad-faith editing – I see no indication of that and I thank you for bringing up the question for discussion. I just thought that it was worth noticing that the current article content did not reflect long-standing stable content. If it did, there would be no apparent need to even hold a discussion before moving the article. By the way, I support the Arkansas bridge move, since the name seems too ambiguous. —BarrelProof (talk) 00:39, 14 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Searching for "North Washington Street Bridge" on Google Books Search gives more than zero (relevant) results from books using the phrase, so I don't understand what Ngram Viewer is doing differently. It's worth mentioning that Ngram Viewer stops at 2008, while discussion of the bridge in the local news (for example) likely has increased since then now that it is undergoing reconstruction. Regarding Google Advanced Search, the numbers are almost the same if you limit the time period to the last year, for example. I believe this may illustrate some of the limitations described in WP:GOOGLETEST. —Davidpward (talk) 07:13, 19 March 2019 (UTC)
 * I just tried that Google Books Search. It did turn up more than zero results, but just barely. It found 398 matches (when searching for the exact phase "North Washington Street Bridge" in quotes). That's a very small number. Among that less than 400 hits, some of them were in low quality sources, some may be accidental matches such as the other bridge in Arkansas, some are non-independent sources, etc. When searching for "Charlestown Bridge", it found 14,800 matches – about a 37 to 1 ratio in favor of "Charlestown Bridge". To me it seems pretty clear that "Charlestown Bridge" is the more common name (esp. in documents not produced by government official sources). —BarrelProof (talk) 04:53, 23 March 2019 (UTC)
 * The actual search results for "Charlestown Bridge" stop on page 32 (so at most would be 320), while for "North Washington Street Bridge" they stop on page 7. (WP:HITS) But whether it's Ngram Viewer (which doesn't register the name for some reason) or Google Books, my question is, does this provide an indication of the common name in use today — as opposed to the common name in different parts of the 20th century? My assumption is that current news outlets would offer a somewhat better source. —Davidpward (talk) 17:21, 23 March 2019 (UTC)
 * The reason the NGram viewer doesn't register the name is simply that the name it isn't found at all in its corpus (a corpus which is smaller than that used by Google Books, which also finds very few, or at least relatively few, uses of that name – e.g., 7 pages versus 32). The amount of discussion of this bridge in reliable sources is limited, and some of the recent news uses both names, and some of the recent news is basically sourced from the government, which primarily uses the official name because it is producing official information. I think there really is not enough discussion in recent sources to reach a conclusion on what people call it most recently, but it seems clear that if we take a somewhat longer term view, the common name is "Charlestown Bridge". My impression is also that when people use "North Washington Street Bridge", they tend to feel the need to also provide the other name so that people will recognize the topic. But when people use "Charlestown Bridge", they often think that is sufficient by itself. —BarrelProof (talk) 02:13, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
 * I do agree that when looking across its entire lifetime, it has most commonly been called the Charlestown Bridge. The irony is that its name was officially changed because of a complaint made to the city that it was too ambiguous—in 1910—to the point of disrupting mail delivery. (The bridge by Schrafft's is on the complete opposite corner of the peninsula of Charlestown from this bridge.)
 * I posted a request for participation at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Boston. Hopefully it will bring in some people with local expertise. —BarrelProof (talk) 20:25, 27 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Support I looked at several recent articles in the Boston Globe and they call it the North Washington Street Bridge or the "North End-Charlestown bridge". Note the capitalization which suggests that the second moniker is intended to be descriptive, rather than an official name. They evidently do not consider "Charlestown Bridge" to be sufficiently clear by itself. The state calls it the "North Washington Street Bridge (also know as the Charlestown Bridge)." I would consider the Globe, the largest newspaper in the area, a dispositive source on what to call it. I changed the lede to reflect the state wording "also known as". Of course we should and will have a redirect for Charlestown Bridge.--agr (talk) 18:18, 13 March 2019 (UTC)
 * TripAdvisor only uses "Charlestown Bridge" and turns up no search results for the other name. Both Bing Maps and Google Maps label it as "Charlestown Bridge" (only). Some sources (here and here) use both names with a slash between them in their headlines. —BarrelProof (talk) 20:52, 13 March 2019 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure that mapping sites would be a great source for determining the WP:COMMONNAME. For the streets themselves, they ought to reflect the WP:OFFICIALNAME if anything, but I have come across many inaccuracies in this area (including a street name being assigned to a bus platform inside of a public transit station and used in the site's navigation directions, 0.3 miles south of this bridge where North Washington Street ends). For the "place" listings, some of these sites (like Google Maps and Bing Maps) seem to conflate the bridge we are discussing with the Charlestown Patriot-Bridge, by listing its website (charlestownbridge.com), address, and/or phone number. You can also see this on listings by Yelp and Facebook —Davidpward (talk) 02:35, 16 March 2019 (UTC)
 * This is strange. It seems like Google Maps must have changed what it said since I did that. I swear that on 13 March the label on the bridge on Google Maps was "Charlestown Bridge". On Bing that's still what it says. I wasn't talking about search results when searching for one name or the other. what I meant was that if I just look at the place on the map (without starting with any indication of what name I am looking for - e.g., starting by looking for something else nearby), the map shows a bridge name (including the word "bridge") on or next to the bridge. MapQuest doesn't provide a bridge name - it just shows the street name without a bridge name. I'm pretty sure Google and Bing maps are basically independent of each other. Many other mapping sites probably just use one of those. —BarrelProof (talk) 05:16, 23 March 2019 (UTC)
 * It's more complicated than that (data sources named in last paragraph of opening are a just starting point). I still believe mapping sites are particularly not good sources for determining the WP:COMMONNAME. —Davidpward (talk) 18:44, 23 March 2019 (UTC)


 * Comment. Have suggested that a second move request at Talk:North Washington Street Bridge be merged with this one. Surely it would be better to discuss them both together? PC78 (talk) 23:51, 13 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Makes sense to me. Is there a specific way to do that? —Davidpward (talk) 23:57, 13 March 2019 (UTC)
 * I've tweaked the move template above so that should do it, would just need someone to close the other discussion. PC78 (talk) 00:07, 14 March 2019 (UTC)
 * I've procedurally closed the other discussion. Station1 (talk) 00:50, 14 March 2019 (UTC)

For the bridge in DeWitt, I have changed my move request to drop "Arkansas" from the proposed name, based on your comment. —Davidpward (talk) 14:20, 7 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Comment. Request for participation posted to WikiProject Bridges and Tunnels, adapted from Template:Mdn. —Davidpward (talk) 16:53, 16 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Leave Boston bridge as is, move the other one to North Washington Street Bridge (DeWitt). I am not persuaded by the argument that the proposed name for the Boston bridge is more common, per the points made by BarrelProof above. Also, if it's a dead heat in terms of usage then we'd tend to prefer the current name anyway per WP:NATURALDIS. As for DeWitt, putting the statename in the disambiguator is superfluous here, as there are no other such bridges in any other DeWitts, and WP:USPLACE only applies to placename articles not to disambiguators on other articles. &mdash; Amakuru (talk) 13:11, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Regarding only WP:NATURALDIS, I believe that would assume the name "Charlestown Bridge" is considered fully unambiguous, although perhaps not the most preferable name. That is not the case here though. To put aside whether or not it is the WP:COMMONNAME, it is evident that "Charlestown Bridge" is considered ambiguous locally today (comment from ArnoldReinhold above), and was considered ambiguous locally in 1910 (labeled page 3) when the city agreed to change its name. From the peninsula of Charlestown, there is a bridge crossing the Mystic River, and also this bridge crossing the Charles River (both are along the same road and both are heavily used). However, there is not currently a Wikipedia page about the other bridge; is that a factor?
 * Unless there is another bridge that is discussed on Wikipedia that is known as the Charlestown Bridge, I don't think we need to worry about that name being ambiguous, per WP:DAB. I don't see the remark by ArnoldReinhold as indicating that it is an ambiguous name. Even if it is somewhat ambiguous, it may be the primary topic for the name, and thus not require disambiguation. —BarrelProof (talk) 23:36, 7 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Comment reads: "They evidently do not consider "Charlestown Bridge" to be sufficiently clear by itself." —Davidpward (talk) 00:12, 9 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I see, but that's just a subjective guess about what someone else might be thinking. —BarrelProof (talk) 15:53, 9 April 2019 (UTC)
 * It seems to me that this move request should be closed with no consensus on the Charlestown Bridge. It has been open for over three weeks. —Davidpward (talk) 00:12, 9 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Agree. —BarrelProof (talk) 15:53, 9 April 2019 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.