My Commute

     

If  you drive to work, or take a train, this is what some of you might see. 

 I ride a bicycle to work, and I'm proud of it.  

Since I got a new digital camera, I decided to take pictures all along my commute.

Below, here is what I see when I cycle to work:

Here is where I live and start my ride. That's my commuting bike, a '94 Specialized Crossroads XP.
I turn left onto Allston Street and go about half a mile through CambridgePort.
Then I go past Fort Washington, an old fort that was used to protect the Charles River from enemy ships during the Revolutionary War. It is now located about 400 yards from the river, which has been filled in, and it is surrounded by factories and truck depots. People like to run their dogs there.
I cross over some tracks.
Next I cut through part of the MIT campus. Notice this sculpture, which I consider to be an eyesore.
I emerge from the MIT campus to Memorial drive, close to the Hyatt Regency Hotel, and I turn left towards Boston.
I ride about half a mile along a wide and sparsely-used sidewalk along Memorial Drive. (It's still a campus, so nobody ever minds).

Here's a panoramic view of the Boston Skyline from the Harvard Bridge, otherwise known as the Mass Ave Bridge. 
Harry Houdini has a plaque in his honor on this bridge where he performed one of his famous escapes in 1908. I must have gone over this bridge 1000 times before my wife told me about it. 
Here is the ramp which joins the Harvard Bridge to the Dr. Paul Dudley White bike path which runs along Storrow Drive. Dr. White was President Eisenhower's heart specialist, and recommended cycling for cardiovascular fitness.
The view from the bike path.
Looking forward at the Esplanade- a series of parks and lagoons along Storrow Drive. The Longfellow Bridge and Bunker Hill Monument are in the background.
A bridge along the Esplanade. That's the Boston Eye and Ear Infirmary in the background.
A flotilla of Canadian Geese, all in a line.
A statue of Arthur Fiedler, who conducted the Boston Pops Orchestra for years and years.
Here's where he played - the Hatch Memorial Shell. There are lots of good free concerts here, including an annual 4th-of-July concert by the Pops where they play the 1812 Overture amidst an amazing fireworks display. About half a million people attend.
The Arthur Fiedler footbridge brings me to the streets of Boston.
Once again I ride on a relatively unused sidewalk along the Boston Public Garden along Beacon Street.
Here are the famous "Make Way For Ducklings" statues in the Public Garden. Mother Duck is conspicuously missing. She was stolen, but turned up at Boston College.
The Public Garden, with the swan boats in the distance. The footbridge is a model of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Across  Beacon Street is a place where everybody seems to know my name.
Then I continue through the Boston Common.
It's morning, and people are running their dogs before work.
I go past the State House, with its golden dome (and its jaded politicians).
The Park Street Church, where the song "America the Beautiful" was first sung.
I leave the Common and cross Tremont Street and head down Winter street.
Here's Downtown Crossing and the entrance to Filene's. I've bought many a bargain there.
Going up Washington Street, here's the Old South Meeting House.
I turn right onto Milk St. and go about five blocks. It's my first encounter with street traffic since Cambridge.
Here's my building, at 40 Broad Street.
Next to my building is a really cool building that looks like a castle.
Behind my building is the Custom House tower.  (I took this picture during lunch, so I'm cheating a bit, but the picture is worth it.) Notice the rainbow. Actually, it's a circumhorizontal arc (a rare ice crystal halo). For more info about this and other atmospheric optics, go here.    

So that's the end of my commute. Maybe I'll see some more interesting things on the way home.

Hope you had a nice commute, too.


Additional Links:
John Goodman's Bicycle Traffic in China (pictures)
Another John Goodman Article on Bicycling in China
A good site on atmospheric optics.