A Boston Highlight: Linking the Old with the New

We all know Boston is rich with American history and perfect for educational tours. But Boston also has so much to offer today – besides historical artifact. There are amazing shopping centers in Boston, museums, the world’s largest IMAX experience, and familiar modern attractions like Six Flags Over New England.

I like to think of Fenway Park as Boston’s most recent declaration that this city refuses to live in the past. Any Red Sox fan will tell you they were due. But much of the rest of the country had long established the Red Sox in our minds as forever shy of the World Series Championship. In 2004, 86 years since the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees and a championship drought that would come to be known as the Curse of the Bambino, the Red Sox stole the hearts of practically everyone in the country when they finally snagged another World Series win. In 2007 they did it again – just to prove the first time wasn’t a fluke – or because of some legendary curse against the Cardinals that had simply been stronger than theirs. Fenway Park is home to some of the world’s most loyal fans and is rich with modern Boston culture. You have only to be there, to know it’s true.

But there is one tradition in Boston that began somewhere between the Revolutionary War and the 2007 World Series. The Swan Boats in the Public Garden of Boston are a tradition that hail the coming of spring for Boston residents every year. They were designed in the 1870s, and their unique paddle boat design with a swan decor make them unique to the world. Because of their rich tradition but modern worth, they serve as a symbol for Boston’s rare and beautiful staying power. Said one writer, “The New Boston is here and maybe some day there will be a new, New Boston, but good old Boston, like the swan boats, gently glides forever.”