Word: tunnelled
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Weld's only other choice, it seemed, would be to name the tunnel after a North End hero. That may have avoided party politics, but would have caused a neighborhood-based battle just as fierce. The North End had gotten cheated when the second harbor tunnel ran straight through their Italian neighborhood. Not only did it disrupt the unique life of the North End, but the city added an extra insult. The tunnel was named "Callahan"--not the most Italian name around. So when the third harbor tunnel was slated to run through South Boston, the most Irish neighborhood...
Even the suggestions which some (including me) thought would have united the city would have turned out less than profitably. "The Martin Luther King Jr. Tunnel" would have given voice to a part the city which is all but ignored, celebrating the city King called home for much of his young-adult life. But [evil] like Senate President Billy Bulger would never have let a bill like that pass. The King Tunnel would never have been a reality, and the city would have had the scars to prove...
...nothing could have been better than this, the Williams Tunnel. By 1995, Williams will link South Boston to East Boston, providing a traffic connection between the South and North Shores which doesn't pass straight through Downtown Boston. Once that's completed, the Central Artery, the 1950s monstrosity which courses through the heart of the city, will be torn down and replaced by a long, green park. Maybe they'll even put a baseball diamond where the Rowes Merge used...
...fitting that a tunnel which links one side of the city to the other, which connects the towns on the North Shore with those on the South, would be named after someone who, through his own heroism and talent, gave the city a common bond...
...that's left is to imagine how the tunnel will become part of everyday Boston life. In traffic reports, we'll hear about the jam on the Expressway, all the way from Neponset to Williams. Nicknames will start--Bob Ryan from the Globe wants to call it "The Thumper...