Content area
Full text
BOSTON - The problem with having something old is that it takes a lot of attention and an occasional major facelift. Just ask any Central Illinois resident who bought a 19th century dreamhouse.
Nineteenth century is practically modern times in this ancient seaport and cradle of the American Revolution. And major facelifts are a fact of life for residents as well as tourists searching out the physical links with our history.
One such renovation will begin Sept. 25th when the city's most popular tourist attraction, the U.S.S. Constitution, goes into drydock. Like other facelifts in recent years, the work on Old Ironsides will not keep tourists from viewing the site. It just limits access.
Two other popular sites, Faneuil Hall and the Old State House, have just reopened following extensive work.
These and much more can be seen by taking a three-mile walking tour along Freedom Trail. You get more of a feel for 18th century Boston on foot than you would in a car. And Boston traffic patterns make Chicago's rush hour seem like a drive through the salt flats.
"We say the cows laid out Boston," commented Ralph Waldo Emerson even before the horrors of one-man, one-car travel. Stick with the sidewalks, or at least one of many sightseeing "trolleys," buses made to look like streetcars.
In fact the Freedom Trail "can't be driven by car," says Daniela Borgialli, a spokesperson for the Greater Boston Convention and Tourist Bureau. "It's designed to be walked."
Three million people a year do walk it. Though some make the walk in an hour "and then ask what else there is to...