Good morning, Someone has responded to my query from last night and suggested that Bridge Street in Cambridge might have become the Monsignor O'Brien Highway. This is probably correct as it is in the same neighborhood as Gore Street in East Cambridge. Thinking about this made me curious about the history of the "McGrath and O'Brien Highways" which I've driven on many times. I don't think I've ever analyzed them, however. By looking at my street-map book, it appears that the "O'Brien Highway" runs from the Somerville line, through that one end of Cambridge (Lechmere Square area), and then goes to the bridge which is labeled as the "Charles River Dam." But, when I did a search for this highway, I found a web site which states that the "Highway" actually goes over to the Leverett Circle (rotary) on the other side of the bridge. At this same web site I was reminded that, when "traffic reporters" speak of the area, they refer to the "McGrath and O'Brien Highways." So, I looked on the Somerville map, and discovered that the McGrath Highway is only in Somerville, and seems to run only from Rt. 93 to the Cambridge line. And, then the O'Brien Highway is the continuation of that road. (Rts. 1 and 28) This web site I found looks very interesting. Someone has posted "photos" of all the highways they have an interest in. So, if any Lister is from out of State, you can get a glimpse here of what our State roads look like: http://massroads.com/about.shtml So far I haven't been able to find a web site offering the history of these "highways," but I did go to the "MassGov" site and found that the MassHighway Dept. calls that bridge the "Gilmore Bridge." http://www.state.ma.us/mhd/ This is a web site which I found about a year ago, which is FULL of information on the history and current-status of the "roads and highways" of Massachusetts: (very informative and interesting) http://www.schlichtman.org/mahighways/index.html Enjoy your weekend. Betty (near Lowell, MA) P.S. I got to visit the Local History Room at the Cambridge Library yesterday, and I made two observations: There are lots of history and genealogy books there, and the room is an attic-type room which does not appear to be handicap-accessible. ??? "There are two lasting bequests we can give our children; one is roots, the other is wings." Hodding Carter, Jr. "All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." TOLSTOY "We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love, one another." SWIFT **** www.melaleuka.com ****

I don't think McGrath/O'Brien fits. There was one of the major bridges across the Charles between Boston and Cambridge was named (or known as) the "Boston Bridge" or the "West Boston Bridge". This is now the Longfellow Bridge that now extends from Cambridge Street on the Boston side carrying the T trains. I suspect that on the Cambridge side, this was Bridge Street. At 06:04 AM 3/14/2003, BBFFRRPP wrote: >Good morning, > >Someone has responded to my query from last night and suggested that Bridge >Street in Cambridge might have become the Monsignor O'Brien Highway. This >is probably correct as it is in the same neighborhood as Gore Street in East >Cambridge. Bob Geldart bgeldart@aics.net Maynard, MA