Boston

Boston is the capital and largest city of Massachusetts. Boston is also the largest city in the region known as New England, as well as one of the oldest and richest cities in the United States. The city proper had a population of 617,594 according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Boston is also the anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area called Greater Boston, home to 4.5 million people and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country. Greater Boston as a commuting region includes six Massachusetts counties: Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Plymouth, Worcester, northern Bristol County, all of Rhode Island and parts of New Hampshire; it is home to 7.6 million people, making it the fifth-largest Combined Statistical Area in the United States. The city of Boston has many nicknames due to historical context and Bean town is one of them referring to the regional dish of baked beans.
Owing to its early founding, Boston is very compact, the city has a total area of 89.6 square miles (232.1 km²) Most of its territory lies at 5-7 m above sea level and the highest point Bellevue Hill is situated at 101 m.
The city is situated on the shores of Boston Bay.
Boston was founded on September 17, 1630 by Puritan colonists of the Massachusetts colony. In a few years the first American English-language school and the first college – Harvard – were opened. Until the middle of the XVIII century Boston was the largest city in British America, but then lost the title to New York.
In the 1770s the British attempted to strengthen control over the 13 colonies, through increased taxation, but after events like the Boston Tea Party the war for independence started in the country. The Massachusetts colonists disguised as Indians, entered the merchant ships loaded with tea on December 16, 1773 in the harbor of Boston, and threw it overboard. The British government responded with repressive measures against Massachusetts.
After the war the city became one of the world's largest commercial ports. Rum, fish, salt and tobacco were exported from here. And the descendants of old Boston families became the economic elite of the country. The War of 1812 limited the foreign trade activities of the city. However, merchants found an alternative for their investments in this period – industrial production. Soon, Boston becomes a major national center of leather and clothing industries. During the events connected with the abolition of slavery, Boston became one of the centers of the movement.
The ethnic make-up of Boston has changed considerably since the beginning of mass immigration to the U.S. from Europe. In the first wave Irish, Germans, Lebanese, French Canadians, Italians, as well as Polish and Russian Jews dominated. Irish and Italian immigrants brought with them the Catholic faith, and this religious community soon became the largest in the city. The members of the Kennedy family are the descendants of the first Irish immigrants.
During the beginning and the middle of the XX century the city was losing its prosperity. Industrial facilities wore out, the work force moved away from the region. City authorities adopted a number of programs for the reconstruction and restoration of the historic city center, as well as programs for changing the line of business of enterprises. And in 1970 in Boston, a new economic boom began. Innovative technologies were introduced to hospitals and medical centers, and universities and colleges began to attract young people from all over the country. In the beginning of the XXI century, the city regained its status as the intellectual, technological and political center.
The city's economy is supported by education (more than one hundred universities and colleges, including such well-known as Harvard, Boston College and MIT), medical, financial and technology industries.
In Boston, such world-famous museums are situated as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Museum of Science, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, in Cambridge - art museums of Harvard: Fogg Museum, Sackler Museum and the Museum of the Bush-Reisinger.