Cambridge, MA Tourist Attractions
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Cambridge is an independent town of 95,000 located across from Boston via the Harvard Bridge. The quickest way to reach it from downtown Boston is on the Red Line of the subway. Cambridge, named after its English counterpart, has an international reputation as a centre of teaching and research, with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Harvard University
Harvard University is one of the oldest and most highly regarded universities in the United States.
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The 150-acre campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology contains schools of Engineering, Science, Architecture and Planning, Management, Humanities and Social Science. It is a leading research and development center and one of the top applied-science learning facilities in the country. Natural Scientist William Barton Rogers founded the institute in 1861 on Copley Square and it moved to its present location along the Charles River Basin in 1916. Some of the noted architects to have worked on the buildings here are W. Welles Bosworth, Alvar Aalto, Eduardo Catalano, I. M. Pei and Eero Saarinen.
MIT Museum
The MIT museum houses a collection of artifacts documenting MIT's role in the history of modern science and technology. The main exhibition center has a renowned holography display, the Work of Doc Edgerton is showcased in Flashes of Inspiration exhibit, and another gallery profiles some of the Institute's most famous graduates.On the main campus at 77 Massachusetts Avenue the Hart Nautical Gallery contains ship models that outline the development of marine engineering. The Compton Gallery has contemporary artworks that explore the technological world.
Longfellow National Historic Site
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lived in this 1759 Georgian-style house from 1837 to 1882 and wrote several of his most famous poems here. Prior to this George Washington used the house as a headquarters from July 1775 to April 1776 when he was planning the siege of Boston. The National Park Service has run it as a national historic site since 1962. There is a museum and archive section with 18th and 19th century painting and decorative arts, Longfellow's library and personal papers and over 700,000 manuscripts including letters from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Dickens, and Abraham Lincoln.
Museum of Science
The Science Museum contains exhibits that promote learning through hands on exploration. Numerous areas of science and technology are covered here including physics, biology, chemistry, ecology, zoology, astronomy, computers etc. Some highlights of the exhibits include:"Giganotosaurus" contains a replica skull of the world's largest meat-eating dinosaur, a one-and-a-half-story Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Triceratops skeleton."Computer Discovery Space" with several high speed computers to play with and the chance to design your own virtual fish in the "Virtual Fish Tank.""The Lighthouse" contains 18 different interactive displays that help explain the principles of light and optics."The Human Body Connection" tries to answer questions about anatomy, physiology, evolution medicine and technology.The museum's planetarium presents daily laser and star shows. The Mugar Omni theater has a five-story domed screen.
Computer Museum (closed)
The Boston Computer Museum is no longer operating. It is now part of the Boston Science Museum.
Hooper-Lee-Nichols House
The Cambridge Historical Society is located in the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House. The original house was built in 1685 and has been modified numerous times over the past few hundred years. Tours are available to the public year round.
Old Cambridge
The area around Harvard Square contains several of Cambridge's historical buildings including the 1761 Christ Church and the 1753 Waterhouse house, both of which originally fronted the Commons.
