Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 8.

[p. 82] a little way up Woburn street. For fifty years the canal had its Landing No. 4, with its freight yard, lock and tavern, and some two miles of its channel in the West End. The railroad that had succeeded it in popular favor also had stopping places at Symmes' Bridge, Medford Gates, Medford Steps and Willow Bridge, all in the western part of Medford. The Lowell Railroad was opened on June 24, 1835, and is said to have been the first to carry passengers into Boston. In your schoolboy's time, it was still in its infancy, i.e., it wasn't twenty-one years old. It followed closely the route of the canal, crossing it in West Medford between the Steps and the river and, carefully avoiding the centres of population, made its way between two villages for its entire length.

As the mountain wouldn't come to Mahomet, Mahomet had to come to the mountain; so in proximity to the various stopping places, people began taking up a residence. In 1851, by the incorporation of the town of Winchester, Medford lost a part of its territory, mainly that it had acquired from Charlestown, and which was known as Baconville, and the Symmes' Bridge became Bacon's Bridge. Later it was called Mystic Station and is now known as Wedgemere.

When a boy I used to enjoy the ten-mile ride over the railway to Boston on more or less frequent occasions, and for several months attended school in that city, going to and fro each day.

The panorama presented to my gaze through the rattling windows of the cars became fixed—photographed as it were—in my memory.

Come with me now (in imagination, at least,) and look on the scene, and see the picture as it appears to my view tonight. We will take one of the cars of the train in the old station at the foot of Lowell street in Boston. It is one of the old timers, with low roof and black haircloth seats, with two-sashed and four-paned windows that rattle merrily as the train rolls none too smoothly