In the s, Boston was just servicr peninsulaconnected to Roxbury by a thin strip of land. To get to the city, farmers and residents in Chelsea had to walk through Malden, Cambridge, Brighton, and Roxbury. The journey took 2 days. This was such a burden that the Massachusetts Court of Assistance offered a contract to anyone willing to run a ferry between the Shawmut Peninsula now the North End of Boston and Charlestown. InThomas Williams opened the first chartered transit service in the United States. While Boston proper is connected to surrounding communities by a number of bridges and tunnels today, many people still take the ferry from Boston to Charlestown, the Airport, Hull, and Hingham. During Colonial times, few people could afford a horse and carriage, but most were able to travel the peninsula on foot—it was only acres wide, after all. But after the Revolution, the geography and population of the city grew rapidly, and other modes of transit became curing important. The first st...