The Harvard Beneath Our Feet
The Skeletons of the Red Line
The six-minute subway ride between Harvard and Central Square isn’t the most entertaining journey. Passengers find ways to distract themselves as the T hurtles through a cavernous obscurity, averting their eyes from the dark expanse rushing by. But if they were to squint out the window as the Red Line rounded the curve out of Harvard Station, they could see the abandoned shell of another station briefly appear.
Recognizing Radcliffe’s Legacy
A widespread warren of steam tunnels sprawls under Harvard like a secret network of arteries, circulating the lifeblood of the University’s heating system. From the Business School in the south to the River Houses, Harvard Yard, and the Law School in the north, all the buildings on campus seem to be connected by these complex, walkable catacombs.
Harvard Square’s Subterranean Nexus
The Red Line’s resounding rumbles echo loudly throughout Harvard Square. The subway has an uncanny ability to make itself known in many places. The junction between Massachusetts Avenue and Linden Street, however, isn’t one of them.
Inside Weeks Bridge
A sepia ectoplasm of leaf imprints is caked onto the concrete blocks of a bridge dedicated to a dead man. As students, we interact with the John Weeks Bridge regularly, but we never stop to consider the history the structure holds. Scuff marks hint at footsteps that once thundered there, as ephemeral as the leaves that once lay on the drying cement. Scattered stories are the only scraps of vestigial proof we have to document the thousands of people who walked across, ritually jumped off, and fell in love on this bridge.