The Riverway is part of the landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmsted's designed string of parks called the "Emerald Necklace". It consists of dirt and paved trails that run along the Muddy River. According to the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, it was made with "100,000 plantings..to look like it had always been there, a natural, not man-made, landscape."1 Some of the bridges were designed by the famed H.H. Richardson architects.
"By 1800 though, the pressures of an increasing population were changing the Muddy River from an inoffensive little stream into a source of disease," then "Frederick Law Olmsted took the challenge of cleaning the Muddy River and redesigning it starting at the Back Bay Fens and continuing up to Jamaica Pond. He successfully cleaned out the dirty water and did away with the horrifying and putrid smell."2 SInce 1996, the river has flooded three times.3 Restoration has been conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers.4
The park is in Brookline and Boston.
Picture taken from one of the bridges marks the line between Boston and Brookline.
References
1. Boston Parks & Recreation page http://www.cityofboston.gov/Parks/emerald/Riverway.asp
2. https://www.nps.gov/frla/planyourvisit/upload/Muddy-River-Riverway-indd3.pdf
3. ibid.
4. "US Army Corps Report – Phase 1 Construction Activities Next 90 Days – June 2016"
http://www.muddyrivermmoc.org/us-army-corps-report-phase-1-construction-activities-next-90-days-june-2016/
External Links
Boston Parks & Recreation page http://www.cityofboston.gov/Parks/emerald/Riverway.asp
Emerald Necklace Conservancy page http://www.emeraldnecklace.org/park-overview/the-riverway/
Muddy River Restoration Project http://www.muddyrivermmoc.org/
