Boston, Massachusetts: Fastest Cities In The United States

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Boston, Massachusetts is one of the oldest cities in the United States and has a population of over 650,000 people. This city is popular for many reasons and over the past two hundred years has expanded at a very quick growth rate. Massachusetts grew at a growth rate of 0.72% from July 1, 2013 to July 1, 2014 (Miller, Joshua). This rapid growth rate made Massachusetts one of the quickest growing states in the New England region. Within Massachusetts, Boston has been a huge contribution of this growth. The states massive growth rate includes multiple reasons for this phenomenon.

The urbanization of Boston occurred so rapidly because of its unique city flare. Throughout the years of urbanizing, the great city of Boston experienced a very common urban change called, socio-spatial urban change. Boston developed a shift in the patterns of population growth and the boundaries of the urban areas around the city to include greater amounts of people and space over time. In the first appendix I included two images of Boston’s spatial expansion from the years 1870 to 2015. Image 1 shows Boston in 1870, the city has minimal life throughout the city. In 1870 Boston wasn’t fully urbanized than it is in today’s age. There aren’t many buildings and structures in Boston at this time due to the importance of agriculture rather than industry. The United States Census Bureau states Boston’s population …show more content…

The Central Artery is a metropolitan highway system that travels to the heart of the city. This highway system interrupts regular traffic flow inside the city which causes major complications inside and out of Boston. In Boston they decided to work on something called the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, also known as the “Big Dig” that would help solve these traffic problems. According to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Highway Division, Boston’s major traffic issues were before the creation of this highway