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Why we love the Charles
“It’s a cute way of interacting with people,” said Harvard Graduate School of Education student Evelyn Huang as she waved to kayakers and rowers from her favorite river nook.
Photos by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer
Some go to the river to move; others to write, relax, reflect, or just people-watch
If asked to imagine the heart of Harvard’s campus, most people would probably picture the Yard. But one could argue the center is the Charles River, which runs through Harvard’s Cambridge and Allston sides. From dawn to dusk the river is thronged with joggers, rowers, cyclists, dog-walkers — drawn to the scenic spot for reasons that are at once universally felt and deeply personal.
The Gazette spoke to a sampling of visitors who gathered recently by the Charles about what pulls them to the waterway.
Several miles down the river, “Dirty Water,” The Standells’ tribute to the Charles, blares from Fenway Park after every Sox home win. But closer to Harvard you’re more likely to hear about the success of recent cleanup efforts. One Cambridge resident who fishes the river every day boasted he landed a 3-pound bass. And for another longtime resident, the Charles evokes a different song altogether: Simon & Garfunkel’s “Peace Like a River.”
Peace is what draws Evelyn Huang, a Graduate School of Education student who moved here from Columbus, Ohio, in August. She already has a favorite lookout spot on the banks where she recharges on busy days. While the bustle of campus life can cause FOMO, or “fear of missing out,” Huang described the river’s effect on her as JOMO — “joy of missing out.”
“I love sitting here and watching the river and just let everything in my mind flow like the river.”
“I believe a city without a river is not worth living in,” says Leo Moradi, a recent Boston University Ph.D. graduate in philosophy. He has eaten lunch more than 100 times along the Charles and once photographed a sunset in which the sun and river perfectly aligned. “I still vividly remember that day.”
“There’s the interconnectedness of it,” said Mary Stargel, a visitor from Tennessee. “I’m sitting at this body of water. I know that it’s going into the next body of water that is bigger, and it’s come a long way. When I come here, I remember other bodies of water, and that’s very calming. It connects me to the other places I’ve been.”
“It feels like part of the Harvard experience,” said Ellie Stallings. Visiting the river was one of her first acts when she arrived from San Francisco for Harvard Summer School, and she keeps returning to read, do homework, run, observe the bunnies, watch the sunset, and walk to the supermarket or her volunteer job in Central Square.
“It’s really beautiful. It’s really peaceful. There’s a lot of hustle and bustle at Harvard. It’s a lot of nonstop, and you have to take a minute sometimes and sit out and enjoy the sun,” said Micah John ’28, who grew up rowing with her siblings on the river. She often takes study break or grabs a bite along the Charles, and recalls an evening during finals last year watching the sunset and playing music with her roommate in the freezing cold. “Every day is a favorite moment out here.”
“I grew up in Colorado, so around nature a lot. Being in Boston and Cambridge, there are not as many easily accessible points of nature, and so it’s actually such a lovely place that I can just come by foot anytime that I feel like it to escape the noise a little bit,” said Cambridge resident Sarah Griffin.
Omar Silas, who grew up here, fishes the Charles daily for perch, crappie, and small- and largemouth bass. He brags that he recently caught a 3-pound bass. “The river’s been through a lot, so it’s cool to see the cleanup efforts are starting to pay off. Each year, it’s getting better and better.”
Ellen Birnbaum, who worked at Harvard for more than 20 years, comes to the Charles at least once a week — recently, on her birthday. “I find it very calming. There’s a line that Simon & Garfunkel made famous, ‘Peace like a river ran through the city.’ It’s biblical, but it feels that way. It feels that there’s peace here. Sometimes it is very still, sometimes it ripples, and sometimes the currents are strong. It’s different every time. It has a certain character, and I just like to be near it.”
James Bedford ’20, M.B.A. ’25, often perches on the Weeks Footbridge because it reminds him of home. “I grew up on a sailing boat in the southwest of England and being thousands of miles away from my family and from home, this is the place that I feel most calm and most at peace. It reminds me of days sailing and sound of the water and the waves under me.
“There’s something unique about the fact that every day the water that I’m looking at is different, and yet, there is something so familiar and so homely about it. If I think back over the journey that I’ve had coming to this country and coming to Harvard twice in the last decade, it feels very reminiscent of me. I have changed as much as this river has, and yet in many ways, I occupy the same shape and the same outline, and I’m watching myself change as the water does.”
“There’s something about the river’s continuous movement that amazes me. It makes me feel serene, free, and at peace,” said New Yorker Isabelle Lent, who was visiting friends in Cambridge. “I’m so amazed that these things keep flowing all the time, 24/7. When we’re sitting at our desks, stressed about the day, these things are still going.”
Lindsay Lu, a new student at Harvard Law School, stopped to watch the sunset from the Weeks Footbridge. “I like to watch the sun and how it reflects on the water. There’s a nice breeze. It’s nice to stop for a moment.”
