CONFLUENCE - Neponset River and Mother Brook
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NorStar
N 42° 15.116 W 071° 07.376
19T E 324875 N 4679930
From the Dana Avenue Bridge, you can see where the Neponset River is joined by the waters of Mother Brook, which has a long history of use in powering industrial mills.
Waymark Code: WM8MVA
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 04/20/2010
Views: 6
In Boston, in the Hyde Park section of the city, there is a point where the Neponset River is met by Mother Brook. The best place to see this merging is from the Dana Avenue bridge, which sits just downstream of the confluence. There are no public access points that are closer.
The Neponset River is a smallish river that runs from the Neponset Reservoir in Foxborough to Boston Harbor in Boston. Mother Brook is a tributary that runs from the Charles River in Dedham to the confluence.
From the bridge, looking upstream, you will see a fork from which two bodies of water are merging. The course on the left is the Neponset River, while the one on the right is Mother Brook. Most of the time, the Neponset River is by far the dominant river. However, on occasion, Mother Brook appears to provide near the same amount of water as the Neponset.
Both streams have seen a lot of alterations in their courses to suit people's purposes. In the Neponset River's case, upstream a few miles, the river has been altered due to construction of I-95 through Fowl Meadow. In the case of Mother Brook, a ditch had been extended in 1640 so that water from the Charles River flowed into Mother Brook to provide more water power to grist mills at the time. Since then, five locations were dammed and used to power mills there. Today, none of the mills use waterpower, but a portion of the Charles River still flows down this stream. In fact, it is part of the flood control for that river. A portion of Mother Brook does have a natural source that flows from Boston.
At the time of the visit (04/02/2010), the waters were especially high for both streams. The region had just come out of the rainiest one month ever and the waters from the Charles were just peaking in Dedham.
Parking is available on the bridge.
Parking Coordinates: Not listed
Trailhead Coordinates: Not listed
Relevant Web Site: Not listed
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