Boston was the capital city of the former state of Massachusetts in the New England Commonwealth until the nuclear holocaust of 2077.
The downtown core of Boston is one of the most chaotic areas featured in the Fallout series. The streets are fought over between various raiders, Triggermen gangs, super mutants and even the occasional group of Gunners. This produces frequent bursts of gunfire and explosions. It can be difficult, especially at an early level, to find a safe route through the city. Direct confrontation of the various groups can make for slow progress. However, Boston is unique to the series in the amount of vertical space. Often finding a safer route is a matter of looking up. However, the elevated rooftops are not entirely safe. One should watch for Gunners and super mutants on or near the elevated highway which cuts through the financial district.
As one of the birthplaces of American independence, Boston features countless major landmarks, including Bunker Hill, Massachusetts State House, the Old North Church and many, many more, complemented by remnants of American corporate glory, such as the Mass Fusion Building. Unlike many other cities, Boston also features one unusually successful Vault in the form of Vault 81, found at the westernmost limit of the city. Though it suffered due to the passage of time, it became a prominent settlement by the year 2287. The much larger Vault 114, located Boston Common, within Park Street station was not completed by the time of the War.
Background[]
One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from the Kingdom of Great Britain. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere's "midnight ride," the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston. Upon American independence from Great Britain, the city continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub, as well as a center for education and culture.
Located within Suffolk County, the city has expanded beyond the original peninsula through land reclamation and municipal annexations.[Non-game 1] Boston's many firsts include the United States' first public school, first subway system and first public park: Boston Common (1634).
Its rich history would attract tourists despite the economic deterioration. Those who could did enjoy the various parks, such as the Charles River Esplanade and Boston Common, amusement parks, the beach and the various historical landmarks, such as Bunker Hill, and the Dorchester Heights monument, and museums like the Museum of Freedom, the USS Constitution and Fort Independence. Winding through downtown is the Freedom Trail. Marked largely with brick, it winds between Boston Common and the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. Linking historical sites and museums significant to the history of the United States, such as the Faneuil Hall, the Old State House and the Paul Revere House. For those who liked sports, there was Fenway Park, which since 1912, has been home to American's favorite pastime, baseball.
Prior to the nuclear holocaust, Boston had a thriving tech industry.[1] As the Resource Wars continued, the food supply started to dwindle. Rationing sites were set up around Boston, including the Boston Police rationing site. In October 2077, an unknown person smashed the glass of the Roxbury food bank. Soldiers opened fire on civilians, with at least four confirmed dead and eight injured. This incident became known as the Roxbury Food Riot. Food riots started over the city, like in Denver.[2] The Institute, previously known as the Commonwealth Institute of Technology or CIT, was a prestigious university located in Boston. Robert House was believed to be an alumnus pre-War. During the Great War, a number of CIT personnel survived by taking refuge in the underground level of the campus. In 2110, the survivors and their descendants founded the Institute, an organization dedicated to furthering pre-War science. The scientific community inhabiting the university-created technologies vastly superior to anything else seen in the wasteland. Androids or "synths," specifically, are one of the creations to come out of the Institute.
Boston proper only suffered relatively mild damage during the Great War, as only one nuclear missile was launched against the city, and by a stroke of luck it missed its target and instead struck the coastline, limiting the damage to the surrounding area. Ground zero of the missile, however, became a highly dangerous area filled with high level radiation and lightning storms, and has in the post-War years become known as "The Glowing Sea."[Non-game 2][3]
Post-War, the Commonwealth has been described by Dr. Zimmer as "a war-ravaged quagmire of violence and despair." However, the Commonwealth (which includes Boston) seems to be one of less devastated areas in the post-War USA, so Zimmer's impression seems to be primarily based on the fact that he likely grew up inside the Institute, where the standard of living is much higher.
Neighborhoods[]
Cambridge[]
Cambridge was a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the Boston metropolitan area. The site for what would become Cambridge was chosen in December 1630 because it was located safely upriver from Boston Harbor, and on the north side of the Charles River, which made it easily defensible from attacks by enemy ships. Located at the first convenient Charles River crossing west of Boston, Newe Towne, as it was called at the time, was one of a number of towns founded by the 700 original Puritan colonists of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Eventually, it was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in Britain, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders.[Non-game 3]
The town expanded greatly before eventually being subsumed into the Greater Boston metropolitan area. Before the Great War, it was famous for the Commonwealth Institute of Technology laying at its heart and numerous prominent research and development centers nearby, such as Greenetech Genetics and Cambridge Polymer Labs. Academic infrastructure constituted a major part of the district, as students continued to flock to CIT in search of higher learning. When the Great War brought devastation to the world, Cambridge received a direct hit, although much of the district was spared from the devastation. Among them were surviving staff and students of CIT, who eventually founded the Institute in 2110 beneath the CIT ruins, and permanently sealed themselves off from the surface in the 2180s after failed attempts to coexist with the surface and the creation of the molecular relay.[4] Since then, Cambridge has been left to its own devices, divided between ferals clustering around Cambridge crater, raider gangs operating along the Charles River, and the odd super mutant warband. Around 2287, Recon Squad Gladius arrived in Cambridge on the third long range recovery expedition sent by the Brotherhood of Steel, but they have fared poorly due to relentless attacks by local wildlife and other inhabitants, human or otherwise.[Non-game 4]
Charlestown[]
Charlestown is the oldest neighborhood in Boston. Originally called Mishawum by the Massachusett, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from downtown Boston, and also adjoins the Mystic River and Boston Harbor. Charlestown was laid out in 1629 by engineer Thomas Graves, one of its early settlers. It was originally a separate town and the first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1775, Charlestown was the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill, a key battle in the Revolutionary War.
Charlestown became a city in 1848 and was annexed by Boston on January 5, 1874. With that, it also switched from Middlesex County, to which it had belonged since 1643, to Suffolk County. It has had a substantial Irish-American population since the migration of Irish people during the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s.[Non-game 5] Prior to the Great War, Charlestown was also home to the regional office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Drugs, Tobacco, Firearms and Lasers, a federal agency involved in a massive investigation of organized crime around Boston.
Separated from Cambridge by an elevated freeway, Charlestown's old wooden row houses and their colonial architecture structures are still present in 2287. This neighborhood is primarily controlled by raiders, with (sometimes hostile) scavengers to the south and along the river. The neighborhood is dominated by two ancient monuments: Bunker Hill and the U.S.S. Constitution,[Non-game 6] the former of which has since become a hub of regional trade and the latter of which (a primary target for scavengers) is now crashed atop the Weatherby Savings & Loan building, its robotic crew intent on completing its voyage into the seas.
The Fens[]
West of Back Bay, this neighborhood's name is derived from its pre-War name, Fenway–Kenmore. The Fens, sometimes called Back Bay Fens, was a parkland and urban wild within the heart of Boston, was built in 1870 to serve as a link in the Emerald Necklace park system.[Non-game 7] By the 2070s, the neighborhood was connected to the subway's Green Line via Fens Way station and its locale patrolled by the Boston Police Department from Police Precinct 8. A serial killer known as the Fens Phantom operated in the neighborhood, making his lair in its sewers, killing dozens of civilians and leaving several holotapes addressed to the detective assigned to the case.[5] Fenway Park, home to Boston's baseball team Swatting Sultans, was located in the neighborhood and was to be the site of the last game in the 2077 World Series, only interrupted by the bombs falling.
Currently, the Fens is the friendliest neighborhood in all of downtown Boston: it is home to Diamond City, "the Great, Green Jewel of the Commonwealth," the largest and most secure settlement in the Commonwealth, built within Fenway Park; Diamond City security also maintains a relatively safe radius around the city's exterior. The rest of the neighborhood, however, is occupied by various gangs of raider and super mutants (the latter of which are currently forcing out the former).[6][Non-game 8]
East Boston[]
East Boston, nicknamed "Eastie," is a neighborhood of Boston that was created by using land fill to connect five islands: Noddle's; Hog's; Governor's; Bird; and Apple. It is separated from the rest of the city by Boston Harbor and is bordered by Winthrop, Revere, and the Chelsea River. Directly west of East Boston, across Boston Harbor, is the neighborhood of North End and Boston's Financial District.[Non-game 9]
This new territory was annexed by the city of Boston in 1836. By the mid-1800s, the neighborhood would become an influx point for immigrants to the city for well over a century. This influx in population led to rapid growth in the industrialization of the area and subsequently its infrastructural needs. The neighborhood itself was not directly connected to Boston proper until 1904, with the construction of the first subway tunnel to cross the harbor, connecting East Boston to the Financial District;[Non-game 9] a vehicular tunnel would subsequently be built between these two areas as well.[7] Another immigrant-focused accommodation was the repurposing of East Boston Preparatory School, originally a Catholic prep school, into a secular institution serving the immigrant population by local activists.[Non-game 10]
Prior to the Great War, East Boston was home to Boston International Airport, a major East Coast transportation hub,[Non-game 11] located on the southern end of the peninsula. The airport was connected directly to Downtown Boston via the Boston MTA Blue Line but otherwise had no dedicated transit routes across the harbor. Another major construction project in the neighborhood was RB-2851. Jointly operated by General Atomics and the U.S. Army, this massive underground facility was designed to be a clandestine experimental Robobrain production site, with its main entrance hidden as a humble RobCo Industries computer service center.
When the nuclear weapons were launched, East Boston was spared from a direct hit, but not the immediate effects. Planes flying to and from Boston Airport fell and crashed into the land (and the surrounding waters), their gigantic metal hulls now landmarks. As most of the land in the neighborhood was land fill, when the land shook liquefaction took hold, sinking some heavier structures. With time, as with the rest of the conurbation, collapse, detritus and lack of maintenance would cause the water runoff system to become ineffective, flooding the neighborhood's lower areas -- a problem exacerbated by rising sea levels.[Non-game 11] The tunnels crossing the harbor between East Boston and central Boston have also collapsed as a result of the devastation.
As of 2287, East Boston is mostly uninhabited, but not completely. The Triggermen have repurposed Easy City Downs, a former horseracing track, into a (rigged) robot racing track. A significant raider gang in the area is based out of East Boston Preparatory School, and is known for harassing traders from Bunker Hill to the west. Boston Airport is plagued by feral ghouls,[Non-game 11] but is quickly secured by the Brotherhood of Steel once they enter the Commonwealth in force. Finally, RB-2851 has been reoccupied by a costumed character, who made it their lair with the intention of using its long-dormant mechanical production lines to help bring order to the chaotic wasteland.
Esplanade[]
A part of Back Bay, the Charles River Esplanade was a state-owned park along the bank of the Charles River, with the neighborhood including some of the nearby Back Bay urban blocks. The park itself was dedicated as the "Boston Embankment" in 1910, and created as part of the construction of the Charles River Dam. It originally extended to Charlesgate and connected with Olmstead's Emerald Necklace of public parks. However, it went through a major expansion from 1928 to 1936, widening and lengthening the park land.[Non-game 12] Commonwealth Avenue is the main east-west thoroughfare along the southern edge of the neighborhood, parallel to the riverfront Storrow Drive. It runs from the Holy Mission Congregation church in the west to Boston Common in the east. The thoroughfare is divided by a wide median planted with trees, and is lined by the pre-War mansions.[Non-game 13][Non-game 14]
Two centuries after the Great War, the location's waterfront mansions still exhibit the faded grandeur of times gone by. Control of the neighborhood is currently in contest by raiders and Gunners, the latter of which are also intent on exploring HalluciGen, Inc., the headquarters of a pre-War biochemical research facility which has since begun leaking chemicals.[Non-game 13] Meanwhile, a secret society calling themselves the Pillars of the Community has made their home within a riverside amphitheater.[8]
Back Bay[]
Originally a tidal bay, Native Americans built fish weirs here; by 1892, however, a filling project would completely fill the area. The project was the largest of a number of land reclamation projects which, beginning in 1820, more than doubled the size of the original Shawmut Peninsula.[Non-game 15] The Esplanade to the north is nominally part of Back Bay; otherwise, the neighborhood is bounded to the west by the Fens and to the east by Boston Common and the Theater District. The Massachusetts Turnpike, a major interstate highway, forms the southern boundary of the neighborhood from the eastern terminus of Mass Pike Tunnel.
This neighborhood was once known for its numerous brownstones, considered one of the best preserved examples of 19th-century urban design in the United States, as well as individual architecturally significant buildings and cultural institutions such as the Boston Public Library or Trinity Church. This, however, didn't stop new construction, such as that of Trinity Tower, which came to dominate the skyline as Boston's tallest skyscraper.[Non-game 16] Prior to the Great War, the corporate HQ of Wilson Atomatoys (creator of the Giddyup Buttercup) was located here. Another notable storefront was that of Hubris Comics, which doubled as a television studio for the planned adaptation of the locally popular franchise The Silver Shroud.
Trinity Tower survived the Great War relatively intact, but other structures were not so lucky. By 2287, the neighborhood is now divided between bands of raiders, super mutants, feral ghouls, and packs of wild mongrels.[Non-game 16]
Beacon Hill[]
Boston's first European settler, William Blaxton, built a house and orchard on Beacon Hill's south slope in 1625. In 1630, the settlement of Boston was established by the Massachusetts Bay Company in a "preformal arrangement," and Blaxton subsequently sold most of his land on the Shawmut Peninsula to the new settlement before moving away in 1635. The name "Beacon Hill" comes from a signal beacon which was installed by the city on the highest point in Central Boston, part of this area, in 1634.[Non-game 17]
Development of the Beacon Hill neighborhood occurred in the late 18th century to accommodate Boston's growing population, with a plan laid out by Charles Bulfinch. Subsequently, its federal-style row houses, gas-lit streets, cobblestone alleys and brick sidewalks became known as one of the most desirable and expensive neighborhoods in the city. It became home to affluent citizens of Boston such as the Cabot family, who built their ancestral manor in Louisburg Square in 1711. [Non-game 17][Non-game 18]
Beacon Hill continued to be known for its historic architecture, pleasant quality of life, and its status as the "gateway to the Financial District" through the pre-War era. The neighborhood also housed the regional headquarters of the Vault-Tec Corporation, as well as the Boston Bugle building, home of the Boston Bugle newspaper company.[Non-game 19]
Two centuries later, Beacon Hill is a far less desirable place, with bands of raiders jostling for control and many structures decimated by the ravages of war and time. Cabot House, on the other hand, appears almost untouched by the war, and is still occupied by the reclusive Cabot family.
North End[]
This residential neighborhood once boasted continuous residential inhabitants since 1630. In the 18th century, the neighborhood became a fashionable place to live. Wealthy families shared the neighborhood with artisans, journeymen, laborers, servants and slaves. The district is infamous for its long history of rioting and unrest, from the Stamp Act riots of the early American Revolutionary War that forced Thomas Hutchinson to flee in 1765, to the religious and migrant violence throughout the 19th century, punctuated by various epidemics. It wasn't until the late 19th century and intense efforts to eradicate poverty among North End residents that the fortunes turned. From the 1880s onwards, the old wooden buildings were replaced by modern architecture using brick and mortar. Only a select few historical buildings were preserved, most importantly the Paul Revere House.[Non-game 20]
North End remained largely unaffected by the modernizing craze that swept Boston in the 21st century. The historical North End district continued to live in the shadow of the superhighways cutting through Boston and the Financial District's massive skyscrapers reaching towards the sky, preferring the warmth of brick and the elegance of wrought-iron balconies. The wharf continued to serve shipping interests and life went on all the way until the Great War.[Non-game 21]
In the 2070s, the local Italian mafia controlled the criminal enterprises in the neighborhood. They attempted to improve relations with the South Boston Irish mafia, however, this was a trap. Under the guise of improvement, they would operate a job as a joint enterprise, its failure accelerated the deterioration of their relations and implicate them directly as a part of a federal investigation.[9][10] A part of Winter's manipulation of Operation Winter's End, ending in its complete subversion.[11][12]
Despite superficial damage, North End weathered the holocaust surprisingly well and even two centuries after the War, most of its buildings remain standing and in habitable condition, including the Old North Church, where the Railroad founded its latest headquarters after the loss of the Switchboard. The densely packed alleyways are also a haven for roving bands of super mutants and raiders, concealing the Railroad from prying eyes. However, other clandestine creatures stalk the night here, such as Pickman, a killer preying on the hapless raiders.[Non-game 21]
Boston Common[]
Once owned by William Blaxton (the first European settler of Boston), until it was bought from him by the Puritan founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Established in 1634, Boston Common started as a communal grazing ground for their cattle.[Non-game 22][13] However this only lasted for a few years, as affluent families bought additional cows, which led to overgrazing. A perfect example of the Tragedy of the commons, after which grazing was limited in 1646 to 70 cows at a time. Boston Common continued to host cattle until they were formally banned from it in 1830 by Mayor Harrison Gray Otis.[Non-game 23]
The Common was used as a camp by the British before the American Revolutionary War, from which they left for the Battles of Lexington and Concord.[Non-game 22][13] It was used for public hangings up until 1817, most of which were from a large oak tree which was replaced with gallows in 1769. Including the four executed Quakers known as the Boston martyrs. On May 19, 1713, two hundred citizens rioted on the Common in reaction to a food shortage in the city. They later attacked the ships and warehouses of wealthy merchant Andrew Belcher, also the lieutenant governor was shot during the riot.[Non-game 23]
Its true park status seems to have emerged no later than 1830, when the grazing of cows was ended and renaming the Common as "Washington Park" was proposed. Renaming the bordering Sentry Street to Park Place (later to be called Park Street) in 1804 acknowledged the reality. By 1836 an ornamental iron fence fully enclosed the Common and its five perimeter malls or recreational promenades, the first of which, Tremont Mall, had been in place since 1728, in imitation of St. James's Park in London.[Non-game 23]
As time marched on and the city grew, the Common became the nexus of the city south of the river. An idyllic park surrounded by historic mansions and the State House, latter becoming the beginning of the Freedom Trail. Where tourists could follow to visit the most famous and historic sits around the city.[Non-game 24] As the years passed, however, the city sold off the land to property developers, eventually having to merge the Common and the Public Garden. Much to the chagrin of its groundskeeper and disappointment to its tourists.[14] As technology developed, they constructed a metro station to service the area.[Non-game 22] Which it did well into the 2070s.[15] This however was not the end of its service life. It was purchased by the Vault-Tec Corporation to serve as a pre-excavated site to construct one of their Vaults. However, with their purchase of a functional station from a corrupt bureaucracy, they contracted the work out as well. They were just as corrupt. The scam continued until the day nuclear fire halted society above. Vault 114 would've been a place where the wealthiest would've been led by an insane fool in the most abject squalor.[15] Despite this the vault would be used at some point, later becoming abandoned, and eventually being discovered by a weaker band of Triggermen, led by Skinny Malone, who were muscled out of their old territory of Goodneighbor.[16]
For some time after the War the Common was left to decay just as the rest of the city's parks. This was the state of things until Edgar Swann arrived. After his expulsion and abandonment, Swann eventually made his way to Boston Common where he made his home in the groundskeeper shack. It was here he finally lost his mind to his mutation,[17] eventually creating armor from the swan boats of the pond and developed into a behemoth.
As for the park itself, it was only after his arrival that the Common became a place not only to be avoided at all costs, but to be fundamentally feared.[18] So feared, in fact, that even raiders won't follow their prey into the area.[19][Non-game 25] Early on, a group of raiders quickly constructed fortifications around the locale, in an attempt to kill the creature. They failed, one of their skeletons lays backed into a gazebo, their fortifications and extra explosives lay abandoned. Some time later, the Railroad would construct warning signs.[Non-game 24][Non-game 22] Since then the bodies of countless victims who did not heed the warnings are strewn about the Common.[20][21][22][23] This was not the end of the Common's habitation, for one, the Freedom Trail was co-opted by the Railroad who use it to make contact with those who wished to seek them out.[Non-game 22] Meanwhile, as mentioned above, the Vault in construction beneath its Metro station was reoccupied.
Financial District[]
Once the commercial center of town the financial district was the center of the latest construction techniques prior to the Great War. Since then however, most of it is either covered in blood or the tons of rubble. As the mangled skyscraper metal from the numerous fallen structures litter the area. Simply put, this neighborhood is a disaster; what structures are left standing have gaping holes and whole missing sections. The highest of which are sometimes no more than skeletal, particularly around the main thoroughfare of Congress Street. Scavengers are just as likely to fall to their death as succumb to super mutant or Gunner gunfire. It contains perhaps the region's most important – and tallest – structure, the immense Mass Fusion building,[Non-game 26] as well as the near as tall Baxter building.
The Financial District is surrounded by the elevated Central Artery highway, providing vertical access to the rooftops and upper floors of numerous buildings, as well as a relatively safe method of cutting through much of the city center.
Theater District[]
Plays were originally banned by the Puritans until 1792; then in 1793, Boston's first theater first opened, the number would steadily grow throughout the centuries.[Non-game 27] By the 2070s, the neighborhood was connected to the subway's Orange Line via the Medical Center metro, located next to the Mass Bay Medical Center. After the bombs fell there were many casualties, the Mass Bay Medical Center was quickly commandeered by the remains of the military to treat victims of the nuclear detonation and resulting fallout.[24]
Several centuries after the War, the entertainment industry would be revived with the Combat Zone, which would be taken over by raiders in 2285. Meanwhile, Gunners attempt to hold on to territory while fending off super mutants encroaching on their facilities, such as the sprawling Mass Bay Medical Center. Other locations are quieter, but no less dangerous, such as Hester's Consumer Robotics, the old robotics store close to the freeway.[Non-game 28] Said to be a deceptive trap and is shunned by scavengers.[Non-game 29]
Boston Harbor[]
Since its discovery by John Smith in 1614, Boston Harbor has been an important port in American history. It was the site of the Boston Tea Party as well as almost continuous backfilling of the harbor until the 19th century. By 1660, almost all imports came to the New England coast through the waters of Boston Harbor. With the rapid influx of immigrants, Boston transformed into a booming city, but with such a population increase comes sanitary issues. (Such as dumping their waste into the nearby waterways and eventually into the harbor; a common practice throughout history.) By the late 19th century, people were advised not to swim in any portion of the harbor. The City of Boston, like most major cities at the time, would go on to create sewage stations and commissions to deal with the problem. Eventually, the water quality in both the harbor and the Charles River improved, and the projects have dramatically transformed Boston Harbor from one of the filthiest in the nation to one of the cleanest. Becoming a safe for fishing and swimming,[Non-game 30][25] however, this wouldn't prove to last through the energy crisis.
During the resource crises of the late 21st century, Boston would transition to run on nuclear power. Municipal plutonium wells were installed across the city, and Mass Fusion installed what was supposedly the first commercial fusion power reactor on homes and buildings across the city. However, in reality behind Mass Fusion's promises of a cleaner tomorrow came even heavier pollution. Their revolutionary fusion reactors were in reality poorly shielded fission reactors, and the resulting nuclear waste outpaced the company's ability to properly dispose of it.[26] Illegal dumping by Mass Fusion and other companies such as Corvega and Saugus Ironworks poisoned the environment around Boston.
The radiation seepage would seep into the rivers, lakes and the harbor like the sewage of old. While man took both legal[27] and physical action against the detritus,[28][29] the local crustaceans would be the first to grow ever larger and poisonous. All of which would be ignored by the Boston Port Authority and the media; the former of who stopped taking calls from activists, particularly of the Nahant Oceanological Society,[30] while the latter would spin the stories relayed to them into pro-government propaganda.
Corrupt to the core, the local municipal services of the Greater Boston area would routinely flout basic safety protocols and misallocate funds. Such as the case with the entire municipal water system. Despite a decade-long (c. 2050—2060) plan of modernizing the city's aged sanitation systems,[Non-game 31] the new equipment procured and updated facilities was of poor quality and use. Such as the case of the Weston water treatment plant, with the catastrophic and systematic failures of the equipment, the facility was forced to compensate both in man-hours and even "experimental" waste water recycling. This lead to a cholera outbreak in 2077; to cover for this, the facility staff and regional municipal utility services would collude with other plants to swap out tainted water for clean, known as the "Weston WELLness press initiative."
This was all compounded by the still functional two hundred year old (at the time) sewage tunnels; built to channel waste water directly to the nearest waterway, they would occasionally overflow with combined sewer and rain water. These were never modernized nor reinforced. Much of these ancient catacombs were crushed by the Great War; what wasn't crushed would either be cut off from the rest of the system or silted up with the harbor itself.
Now, past the shallow waters and rusty hulks, the harbor has the distinction of being among the most dangerous (and soggy) of neighborhoods of Boston. Home to mirelurks, pockets of super mutants, raiders and the odd roving scavenger, the inhabitants are never friendly. Since the War, tales of a sea monster lurking in the bay have circulated.[Non-game 32]
South Boston[]
Once a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, this neighborhood features some of the most fearsome threats outside of Boston Common. It is separated from the rest of the neighborhoods by the elevated freeway remains (to the west), and Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay (to the north and east).[Non-game 33] Geographically, Dorchester Neck was an isthmus, a narrow strip of land that connected the mainland of the colonial settlement of Dorchester with Dorchester Heights. Landfill has since greatly increased the amount of land on the eastern side of the historical neck, and widened the connection to the mainland to the point that South Boston is no longer considered separate from it.[Non-game 34]
During the American Revolutionary War, George Washington placed cannons on Dorchester Heights, thereby forcing the evacuation of British troops from Boston on March 17, 1776. The British evacuated Boston and Fort William and Mary for Halifax, Nova Scotia. Fort William and Mary was replaced with a brick fortification known as Fort Independence. That fort was replaced by a granite fortification (bearing the same name) prior to the American Civil War, and still stands on Castle Island. Once a National Historic Landmark, Edgar Allan Poe was stationed at Castle Island for five months in 1827 and was inspired to write The Cask of Amontillado based on an early Castle Island legend.[Non-game 34]
South Boston gained an identity separate from Dorchester, but the two were annexed by Boston in pieces, from 1804 to 1870. It was once known popularly as a working class Irish American neighborhood,[Non-game 34] with the neighborhood itself most popularly known as Southie.[31] That reputation didn't change in the two centuries that followed. By the 2070s, the neighborhood was serviced by the subway via Andrew station and its locale patrolled by the Boston Police Department from its local precinct.
At this time, the neighborhood was a rough one, with military blockades keeping order. Its police were known to be trigger happy, and looming over it all was the local Irish mafia, controlled by the infamous and monstrous Eddie Winter.[32] At that time, the relationship between his and the North End Italian mafia was sour. Under the guise of improvement, they would operate a job as a joint enterprise, its failure would accelerate the deterioration of their relations and implicate them directly as a part of a federal investigation.[33][34] This was a part of Winter's manipulation of Operation Winter's End, ending in its complete subversion.[35][36] His victory was short lived, as not long afterward, the Great War would occur.
Nearly two centuries later, the neighborhood would have different power brokers. Fort Independence, once again known as "The Castle" was the headquarters of the Commonwealth Minutemen. They would be driven from their stronghold by mirelurks in 2240.[Non-game 35] By 2287, the neighborhood is home to raiders (with Chancer's gang in particular operating from Andrews station), super mutants and mirelurks. A different syndicate, Marowski's, would be operating a chem lab in the Four Leaf fishpacking plant.
West Roxbury[]
The West Roxbury township is a neighborhood of Boston, founded contemporaneously with the city in 1630. Originally a part of the town of Roxbury, as farmland, West Roxbury seceded in 1851 and was annexed by Boston in 1874, together with Jamaica Plain and Roslindale.[Non-game 36] By 2077, the township was a suburban district, housing the fully automated Milton General Hospital and the flagship Fallon's Department Store, both serviced by a large car park and the West Roxbury station. Prospective buyers could peruse cars at a local dealership just south of Fallon's.
The local living arrangements included a small housing area, overlooking the crossroads with the township's major landmarks, and the Shaw High School.
Notes[]
The city's skyscrapers make Boston viewable from most locations on the map.
Appearances[]
Boston appears in Fallout 4 and Fallout: The Board Game. It is also mentioned in Fallout 76.
Behind the scenes[]
As featured in Fallout 4, Boston features a number of intricate differences from its real appearance. Various post-Divergence skyscrapers fill the same space as real world structures in Boston's skyline, but serve alternate purposes in the world of Fallout.
Big Dig[]
Perhaps the most present piece of alternate history is the avoidance of the infamous Big Dig. A massive multi year construction project spanning from 1982-2007. The purpose of the project was the rerouting of the elevated Central Artery of Interstate 93. The elevated highway in question, constructed between 1951 and 1959, served to connect Charleston and the South End neighborhood, cutting directly between the Financial District and waterfront. The Central Artery was intended to allow for easier automotive transit into Boston, a city infamous for its vehicle-unfriendly historic streets. Dubbed Boston's "second green monster," the Artery was near unanimously hated by the urban population of Boston. Construction had lead to the demolition of many historic homes and disconnected the neighborhoods of downtown Boston, inconveniencing the otherwise fluid pedestrian routes of the city.[Non-game 37]
The Big Dig Project sought to demolish most of the elevated Central Artery and replace it with an underground tunnel, now named the O'Neill Tunnel. The Big Dig became the most expensive highway project in US history, facing numerous complications ranging from collapses to obstructions from the various criss-crossing utility tunnels and historic building foundations. Such complications are mirrored by the quest "The Big Dig," which follows roughly the same route as the Central Artery tunnels.[Non-game 37][37]
A product of the project was the displacement of 17 million cubic yards of dirt. The immense amounts of soil were used to cap numerous landfills in Massachusetts and Connecticut, including Spectacle Island. Further, the Quincy Quarries were filled in with dirt, resolving the cause of death for numerous teenagers who had attempted to dive into the shallow water at the bottom of the quarry.
In Fallout 4, a reverse construction project has occurred. The highways featured in the game closely follow the 1955 interstate plan for Boston featured in the "Yellow Book,"[Non-game 38] created by the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads, with the exception that they are also elevated similar to the pre-dig Central Artery. As such, Boston in the game resembles what was planned for the city in 1955, taken to an extreme. By extension, many uncapped landfills are featured in the game, the Quincy Quarries are unfilled[38], and the various tunnels built during the project are not featured in the game[39]. Spectacle Island has been covered with dirt despite the project not occurring.
Monorail[]
Hand in hand with the elevated interstate is the presence of a monorail attached on the underside of many such roadways. The monorail serves the same purpose from a transportation perspective as the absent North Station, providing rail access to central Boston.
This recent (2060s/2070s) massive construction project, and the Metro network upgrade, was beset by corruption and incompetence. The city's criminal organizations taking advantage of the situation as they normally did. The scandal was written in the Boston Bugle under the title "Heaven's Highway - Devil's Doing." by Buster Connolly. However, his assertion in the amount of involvement of the various mafia was overstated. His assertion that the safety inspector, Alice Lansky, being murdered was true.[40]
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