Boston Great American Railroad Journeys

I have crossed the Atlantic to ride the railroads of North America with

my faithful Appletons' guide.

Published in the late 19th century,

it will lead me to all that is magnificent, charming,

confusing, invigorating

and haunting in the United States and Canada.

As I journey through this vast continent,

I'll encounter revolutionaries and feminists, pilgrims and witches,

and ride some of the oldest and most breathtaking railroads in the world.

With my Appletons', I've set out on a new railway adventure,

from Atlantic ports and islands, across leafy New England,

over mountain ranges, to the Great Lakes.

I'll exploring two of the largest countries in the world.

In the 18th century, the British fought the French in Canada,

thus increasing the security of their 13 American colonies.

I'll discover how a revolution

fanning out from Boston, Massachusetts,

overthrew the Crown and brought in

an independent United States of America.

While in Canada, almost two and a half centuries later,

the head of state is still the British Monarch.

My journey begins in coastal communities

founded by British settlers.

I'll head up through glorious New England to the wilderness around

Lake Placid. Crossing the border into Canada,

I'll take in French-Canadian culture in the province of Quebec,

before making my way through the capital to the Thousand Islands,

and end in cosmopolitan Toronto.

Today, I'm exploring the great city of Boston,

beginning in the harbour area and the historic Park Street district.

I'll then travel out to the factory city of Lowell,

before ending with music in the town of Haverhill.

Along the way, I sample the Catch of the Day...

Has anyone ever told you, sir, that you are a great shucker?

I appreciate that!

It's all in the knife, in the attitude.

..discover Boston's remarkable musical treasure...

The organ started to be reassembled here,

and this entire building was built to house this specific instrument.

Wow!

..and uncover the sneaky origins of America's Industrial Revolution.

He memorised the plans for the power looms.

They wouldn't let him travel back with any schematics.

This was industrial espionage!

It was industrial espionage, absolutely!

I'm beginning this American adventure in Boston,

which Appletons' tells me is the capital of Massachusetts

and occupies a peninsular of some 700 acres.

Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States,

founded in 1630 by Puritan settlers,

who named it after their hometown in Lincolnshire in England.

The city is regarded as the cradle of the American Revolution,

and its role in the fight for independence from the British

has shaped its identity and its architecture.

The lovely Massachusetts State House was finished in 1798

and so looks much the same as the drawing in my Appletons' guide.

It has classical touches, columns, a dome.

There's even a fellow there in a toga.

I think we're meant to think about the Roman Republic.

The people of Massachusetts are to be proud of their representative

government, and happy that they are no longer the subjects of any king

or queen.

The 19th century saw a great expansion of Boston.

And there are now 23 separate neighbourhoods across the city,

each with a different character.

I'm really liking Boston.

It's so easy to walk about.

It feels energetic, it feels youthful.

And the buildings, superb.

The old ones tell you that this was at the heart of the foundation

of the United States, and the new ones,

that Boston is today a really important business city.

And the fact that they are all

shoved together doesn't matter at all. It works. It looks great.

One celebrated event in history has made Boston famous.

An act of rebellion against the British in 1773,

which to Appletons' readers

had recently become known as the Boston Tea Party.

It came about after a series of unpopular taxes were levied on the

colonies, to replenish British coffers after a hugely expensive war

against the French on the American continent.

To find out what prompted Bostonians to turn against the British Crown,

I'm meeting Evan O'Brien.

-Hi, Michael, welcome to the Boston Tea Party Ships Museum.

-Thank you.

Friends, we have gathered here tonight to discuss yet another

-crisis, forced upon us by Parliament and King George III.

-THEY BOO AND HISS

Now, this crisis comes in the form of three ships,

-together carrying 340 crates of East India Company tea.

-MORE BOOING

Now, here to further discuss this with us

is that ardent patriot, Samuel Adams.

Thank you, Miss Scully. This is a small, meagre, 3p per £1 tax.

But that's what makes it so dangerous.

Because it is so affordable by the masses, many will pay it,

only showing King George and Parliament that we are willing

to submit to any act of unjust taxation they pass upon us.

Taxation without representation is tyranny.

-The time for compromise here is over, my friends!

-THEY CHEER

-Shall we destroy that tea?

-CHEERS

Grab your disguises. Onto the water! Huzzah!

Safe travels, my friends. Godspeed.

Samuel Adams raised a rabble.

And on the 16th of December 1773,

a group known as the Sons of Liberty came down to Boston Harbour and

boarded the tea-laden ships.

We must be cautious here on this night.

Even being on board may be an act of treason,

and that is not a fate I would like to befall any of us here tonight.

So, we must remain cautious.

2,000 or so Bostonians have joined you,

lining Griffin's Wharf to watch our protest.

Any one of them might be a Tory spy.

If they were to identify you committing treason tonight,

they'd be more than happy to report you to the authorities.

But of course in the days and weeks ahead, we must maintain that our own

identities remain a secret.

After all, if any of us go blabbing at the taverns, well,

a sure fate will be each and every one of us at the end of a hangman's rope. Well, my friends,

we have 112 crates on board the Brig Beaver tonight.

Why don't you grab a tea crate there, sir?

Oh, dear. You know,

I feel very loyal to His Majesty,

and I feel very recognisable in this yellow coat.

And I don't much fancy being hanged.

Well, what is your decision then, sir?

-Go on, then!

-Ah, yes!

-THEY CHEER

Well done, sir!

In this act of defiance, 342 crates were jettisoned,

destroying around 1.5 million worth of tea at today's prices.

Evan, how close are we here to the actual event?

It actually took place right here, where that red building stands.

That was where Griffin's Wharf once stood.

When does it first become known as the Boston Tea Party?

It wasn't until the 1820s that the first utterance of the Boston Tea

Party was made. It was made in a newspaper.

In 1773, it was simply referred to as the incident on Griffin's Wharf,

-or the destruction of the tea.

-So it takes a while to enter

the national narrative of the revolution.

Do you think that's because there's a certain embarrassment about this

-hooliganism?

-Absolutely. You couldn't be any more accurate.

And it's not a problem your iconic national moment was actually

an incident of lawless vandalism?

No, not at all. We're actually very proud of it!

With that historic act,

New England turned its back on old England and set its course

towards revolution.

Boston is the fourth most densely populated city in America.

And public transport has long been a challenge.

My Appletons' mentions the city's extensive horse car system.

But only two decades later, the city leapt forward,

as Boston opened America's first subway, in 1897.

I'm meeting Bradley Clarke,

the president of the Boston Street Railway Society.

We're going to take the Tremont Street subway from Park Street

to Boylston Street, the first two stations that opened.

Bradley, do you still feel excited when you're riding this original bit

-of track?

-Absolutely. I enjoy it a lot.

And the funny thing is that this is not what I would

call a subway train. This is what I would call a tram.

And in America, we call it a streetcar.

So, how does that happen? How is the streetcar running here underground?

Well, it's unusual. For a time, they tried third rail trains,

such as are in the Tube in London.

They didn't work out. The subway was built to handle the dimensions

of a tram car, of a streetcar, which was much shorter.

So after about a seven-year period,

they took the subway trains out and put the trams back,

and that was 1907. And what are we now? 110 years later.

The original subway line was only about half a mile long.

Around a three-minute ride.

Exhibited in Boylston Street Station is a subway car from 1924.

So, Bradley, this is a very handsome car.

For the public to see, as they ride by.

Boston comes where, chronologically, in subways in the world?

Well, it's number five in absolute terms of subways.

Now, the Metropolitan was the first, in 1863.

The City in south London in 1890.

Budapest in May of 1896.

Glasgow in 1896.

And finally Boston in September of 1897.

In America, it was the very first.

Why did Boston feel the need to follow London,

Budapest and Glasgow underground?

The problem was that public transportation was incredibly

popular. Tremont Street, which this subway runs under, had three tracks,

which were jammed most of the day.

It is said that the cars were so close together that you could walk

on the roofs of them faster than taking the car itself.

The solution was to take the rails beneath the streets.

But many Bostonians were fearful of going underground.

How could they allay these fears?

They tried to make it as sanitary as possible.

The walls of the stations were panelled in white porcelain tile.

And the tunnels were lit by incandescent lights.

It was felt that it would calm the public as they rode through.

Now, there's an extraordinary thought to me, they lit the tunnels?

Boston was the first subway in the world to illuminate its tunnels.

The Tremont Street subway today forms part of the Green Line

in the Boston subway system.

But there are now also Red, Orange and Blue Lines,

transporting 750,000 passengers per day.

From that little tunnel back in 1897 between

Park Street and Boylston,

the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Network

has become pretty impressive.

To end my day, I've alighted in Haymarket,

on the hunt for a typically Bostonian supper.

And I'm told that, for nearly 200 years,

this has been the place to go.

Well, I've come to a Boston landmark.

The Union Oyster Bar. The oldest restaurant in Boston, and the

oldest restaurant in continuous service in the United States.

-Did I get that right?

-You did, sir.

I got that right, good. What oysters are you offering tonight?

From Cape Cod, Cotuit oysters.

-Connecticut, Blue Points.

-Cape Cod, I believe, is in Massachusetts?

Yeah, south of here.

So, I will have Cape Cod oysters, please.

-Mike, how many would you like?

-I'll have half a dozen, please.

-Sure.

-Has anyone ever told you, sir, that you are a great shucker?

I appreciate that!

You do that so well.

What you've just done would take me ten minutes.

-It's all in the knife.

-All in the knife.

-And the attitude.

-Have you been here before?

-Yes, two times today!

-Two times today!

-Yeah!

-You enjoyed it the first time?

Very much, that's why we decided, mm, let's come back here again!

All right.

-And there we are.

-Look, to my new friends!

-Bernie... Bernie, thank you so much.

-New friends, there we are.

Mm!

That's so good!

This morning, I'm making my way to Boston North Station.

My destination is a 50-minute trip out of town

on the Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority commuter rail.

My next stop will be Lowell, Massachusetts.

Appletons' tells me it's 26 miles from Boston.

One of the most noted manufacturing cities in the Union,

situated on the Merrimack River.

And the source of its prosperity are the Pawtucket Falls.

For Lowell, the water mills were a boon.

The route here was originally operated

as the Boston and Lowell Railroad, and was one of

the earliest in the United States, first chartered in 1830.

Lowell is renowned as the birthplace of the American Industrial

Revolution. It was the nation's first planned industrial town...

..and helped to build the economic strength

of the recently independent United States.

I'm heading to the Boott Cotton Mills

on one of Lowell's historic streetcars.

The trolley is, I think, a modern copy.

But the tracks are the real thing, dating back at least a century.

And they are leading me even deeper into history.

The Boott Cotton Mills opened in 1835

and, for the first time,

brought all the stages of cloth making into one place.

They closed in 1955, but have been restored

as Lowell National Historical Park,

where I'm meeting park ranger Emily Anstey.

Emily, what an incredibly noisy environment!

It is! And we're only running about a dozen looms right now.

There are 88 in the room.

-Any chance we can stop them?

-I think so.

Wow! That is quite a relief!

So, it must have been terrible, with the noise,

-and I imagine, the heat as well.

-The noise was deafening.

And it's not just this floor of machines,

it's all the floors in the mill building.

And then the heat... It's not only hot, it's humid.

They're piping in steam to prevent fires,

and also to keep the cotton threads from breaking,

because they can get very brittle.

Back to the beginning, who was Francis Lowell?

Francis Cabot Lowell was a wealthy merchant who wanted to bring

industry to America. He saw that there was a need

for American-made goods, rather than British goods.

And so he travelled over to England in 1810, and he saw the power looms.

He was a very smart man.

They say that he memorised the plans for the power looms,

they wouldn't let him travel back with any schematics.

And he came back and worked with an engineer, Paul Moody,

to create some of the first power looms here.

This was industrial espionage!

-It was industrial espionage, absolutely!

-Can we see some cloth

-being made today?

-Absolutely.

-Thank you.

-Hello!

-Rick, this is Michael.

Hello, Rick. Can you tell me the basics of your loom, please?

We're doing a plain weave here. One harness goes up, one down.

-And the shuttle will pass between it. Just one pick.

-Yeah.

That will go over there. And then the harness changes.

Each time that goes through, that's one pick.

Lowell's factory system brought under one roof

not just the processes, but also the people.

At their peak in the 1840s,

these factory complexes enclosed 8,000 women workers,

known as the Mill Girls.

-What was this house, Emily?

-So, this was a boarding house.

This is company-provided housing for that first workforce here and all

-the Lowell Mill Girls.

-Where were these girls drawn from?

So, these girls are coming from their farming communities

around New England. They're the Yankee farm girls.

And I say girls, but I really mean women between the ages of 15-25.

The conditions in here look quite comfortable.

So, it was very nice, especially compared to some of the

-farming communities in the area.

-I mean, do you think they were happy

with their circumstances?

I think for the most part many of them were happy, originally,

with their circumstances. They're making a wage for the first time.

They have educational opportunities. But they are also working for

14 hours a day in conditions that are very monotonous, very hot,

very different from what they were experiencing on a farm.

So, do they protest in any way?

So, by 1836, there is the first walk-out of Mill Girls.

The lower wages.

Also, the company was going to stop subsidising some of the rent here.

And so in 1836,

about 2,000 of the Mill Girls walked out of the factory floor.

It wasn't successful,

but what it did was it allowed women to realise they could come together

around an issue and try to make a difference.

The Mill Girls' walk-out marked a turning point for women in America,

who thereafter began to participate more widely in social reform.

Before I head back to the city,

I'm intrigued by an entry in my Appletons' which states that the

second-largest organ in the world is to be found at Boston Music Hall.

But I gather it's since been moved, to a town north of the city.

So, my quest to find this historic instrument

is taking me to Haverhill.

At the Methuen Memorial Music Hall,

I'm meeting a member of the 200-year-old Handel and Haydn Choir,

Teresa Neff.

-Hello.

-Hello!

-You must be Teresa.

-I am, welcome.

-I'm Michael.

# Lift thine eyes O lift thine eyes

# To the mountains

# Whence cometh, whence cometh

# Whence cometh help

# Whence cometh, whence cometh

# Whence cometh help. #

That was wonderful!

Thank you so much, choir.

Teresa, I came in search of this instrument, of this organ.

When did it come to this building, and how?

Well, the organ was built specifically

for the Boston Music Hall. And it was installed there in 1863.

But about 20 years later,

they decided that the organ had run its course.

And they dismantled it.

And it just sat in a shed until 1905,

when the organ started to be reassembled here,

and this entire building was built to house this specific instrument.

The organ was built by EF Walcker & Co of Ludwigsburg, Germany.

With 6,088 pipes, this enormous instrument

was the very first concert organ in the United States,

and the musical pride of Boston.

Having come in search of the organ, in fact, I've also come across,

have I not, the Handel and Haydn Society.

-Absolutely.

-Tell me about that.

Handel and Haydn was formed in 1815, a very long time ago,

by a group of men who wanted to promote the music of Handel

and Haydn and other composers that they dearly loved.

Given the age of your country, that makes it a very old society.

It is the oldest continuously performing arts organisation

-in the United States.

-And clearly still in fine voice.

Is there anything else you would like to sing today?

-ALL:

-The Battle Hymn Of The Republic.

Now, Teresa, why would the choir

sing The Battle Hymn Of The Republic?

Well, the person who wrote the words to The Battle Hymn Of The Republic,

Julia Ward Howe, sang with the Handel and Haydn Society

in the middle part of the 19th century. She wrote these words

after she had visited a Union camp in Washington, DC.

And that text that she put to an old hymn became part of the Union

cause during the Civil War.

Today, the Battle Hymn is now a rallying cry for the United States

-as a whole.

-Now, the one thing that would make my day is if we could

-also hear the organ.

-Oh, I think we can arrange that!

-Wow!

# Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord

# He is trampling out the vintage

# Where the grapes of wrath are stored

# He hath loosed the fateful lightning

# Of His terrible swift sword

# His truth is marching on

# He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat

# He is sifting out the hearts of men

# Before His judgment seat

# Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him!

# Be jubilant, my feet!

# Our God is marching on

# Glory, glory, hallelujah!

# Glory, glory, hallelujah!

# Glory, glory, hallelujah... #

I'm heading back into Boston,

to end today's journey with a bird's eye view of this waterfront city

at the Skywalk Observatory.

In the 1630s, Puritans,

who had survived the Atlantic crossing to start a new life,

free from religious persecution, founded Boston.

And more than a century later, the American Revolution was brewed

here by a hotchpotch of intellectuals

and hotheads and street fighters.

Here, of course, is the origin of the United States.

But also of modern Europe,

since Americans inspired the French Revolution.

Indeed, has it not comforted revolutionaries since in their

moments of despair that what was started here in little Boston

would defeat the British Empire?

Next time, I learn the principles of American cuisine...

We want to make sure that we have more cream than cake!

This, I do not believe!

..discover the horrors of 19th-century surgery...

You have to hold the artery so it wouldn't bleed,

and then you had 60 seconds to take off a limb.

..and find out what students do at the world's top university.

An undergraduate can work on the Mars programme?

Absolutely, absolutely. That's what they come to MIT to do.