Charlestown and East Boston, across the water

2 guides across the water. Charlestown is older than Boston, was a town of its own until 1874, and sits on a peninsula reached by three bridges, with the Navy Yard, the Bunker Hill Monument and USS Constitution on it. East Boston is five islands joined by fill in the nineteenth century, reached by two tunnels and the Blue Line, and it shares its ground with Logan Airport.

The crossing is the decision. Neither neighborhood is a walk from downtown, and both are hostage to one tunnel or bridge when something closes. Against that, East Boston holds the city's largest Latin American population, some of the cheapest housing inside the city limits and about the shortest rapid transit ride to a major airport in the country, and Charlestown has a landmark district study area over Monument Square and a Navy Yard converted to housing. Both sit on the harbor, which puts them inside Climate Ready Boston's coastal work. Check the flood zone, and check what the commute looks like on the day the tunnel is closed, because that is the day that decides it.