Fresh Pond Parkway begins at a large interchange with Mount Auburn Street, a major east-west road in western Cambridge, and Gerry's Landing Road, which serves as the connection between the parkway and Memorial Drive, Greenough Boulevard, and the Eliot Bridge over the Charles River. A median initially separates the north and southbound lanes, which gradually narrows to little more than a jersey barrier at the intersection with Brattle Street, about to the northwest. This section bisects Lowell Memorial Park, with the Elmwood estate the only residence on the east. North of Brattle Street, the parkway has no median. In it reaches Huron Avenue, where Massachusetts Route 16 joins the roadway from the west. This section is residential on both sides. The entire southern portion of the parkway is canopied by mature trees, and has concrete sidewalks on each side, separate by a narrow green strip. North of the Huron Avenue junction, the road turns northeast to skirt around Fresh Pond, crossing the former Watertown Branch Railroad right-of-way, and running for to a rotary with Concord Avenue. It remains residential on the east side, until Lexington Avenue, when that side becomes commercial. The west side is lined by the Fresh Pond Reservation, with southbound access to a public parking area and the facilities of the Cambridge public water supply. From the rotary it proceeds west about to its end at a larger rotary, where Concord Avenue continues west, and Alewife Brook Parkway continues north, carrying all three numbered route designations. The south side of this section continues to be the Fresh Pond Reservation, and the north side is heavily commercialized.
History
A northbound parkway from the Charles River through western Cambridge was proposed by landscape designer Charles Eliot as early as 1892. Eliot, a Cambridge resident, had already assisted the city in laying out the Fresh Pond Reservation lands, and believed a parkway would provide improved access between the Charles River and the Middlesex Fells Reservation. In 1898 the Metropolitan Parks Commission, predecessor to the Metropolitan District Commission and today's Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, began acquiring land for the parkway with the purchase of Lowell Park, formerly a portion of the Elmwood estate. Land takings continued in 1899, and the section between Gerry's Landing and Huron Avenue was completed in 1900. The northern section was completed 1928-1930, following disputes between the MDC and the city over its route and funding. The connection of Gerry's Landing Road to Eliot Bridge, colloquially considered part of the parkway, was not completed until 1958.
In media
In February 2010, CBS-television affiliate WBZ questioned whether the remaining 118 rotaries such as the ones featured at Fresh Pond Parkway and Alewife Brook Parkway should be scrapped across Massachusetts.
