This past weekend, the world’s largest two-day regatta, known as the Head of the Charles, took place in Boston, Massachusetts. The regatta has been an annual rowing “holiday” since its origins in 1965. The regatta was founded by the Cambridge Boat Club, who still host the event today. Members of the club in 1965, D’Arcy MacMahon, Howard McIntyre, and Jack Vincent founded the regatta under the ideas of Ernest Arlett. Arlett, a Harvard University sculling instructor, first came to the United States to escape the class snobbery that still existed in English Rowing. He advised MacMahon, McIntyre, Vincent to make the course a head course as the races held in England. The Charles course is three miles long in length, following the classifying qualities of a traditional “head” regatta. The course has six bridges and is also equipped with meandering turns that move toward both the port and starboard sides of the course. These turns have provided challenges to even the most prestigious crews that have competed at this regatta over the 52 years that it has existed. Going through the order of the course, I will explain the historical significance of each bridge and some insight from experience rowing on the course the last three years.
Boston University Bridge/Grand Central Railroad
The first bridge of the 3-mile course is most commonly known as the “BU Bridge” by Bostonians and rowers alike. The BU Bridge was first known as the “Cotton Farm Bridge” when this steel truss bridge was built in 1928 as an automobile suited connection between Boston and Cambridge. Running diagonally under the BU bridge, a railroad bridge also connects the two sides of the river. This bridge is part of the 8.55-mile railroad system in the Boston area known as the Grand Central Junction Railroad. Many of the popular Regatta photos show graffiti that is painted in bright red on this bridge, along with other words and images. Almost annually, there seems to be a new message painted on the steel-plated bridge. This past weekend my coxswain shouted the words on the bridge to us as we rowed under the bridge that read: UNBREAKABLE. With the weather conditions being as bad as they were this past weekend, the crews that wanted to be the most successful had to truly be “unbreakable."
River Street Bridge
The River Street Bridge is the second bridge of the course. Right before the bridge, boats pass the Riverside Boat Club which is one of the large boathouses along the Charles River. This concrete bridge was once a wooden drawbridge to shorten the route between Cambridge and Boston. The current bridge still serves the same purpose, as it connects River Street to Cambridge Street across the river with east-bound traffic only. At this point in the race, crews are just below completing the first mile of the race. Once completing the first mile, the crews will be facing the middle section of the race, which is the most mentally challenging portion of the race. After the first mile, the initial race adrenaline starts to wane and the distance that is left seems much larger than it did at the start. This section is where the strongest crews can prevail by staying collected through the bulk of the piece. Since in a head race there is no way to exactly tell where you stand in regards to the other boats, motivation has to come from the coxswain and from within.
Western Avenue Bridge
Like I said before, halfway between the Western Avenue Bridge and the River Street Bridge crews complete their first of three miles. However, when boats row through this bridge they will be done with half of the bridges that are on the course. For rowers who cannot look outside of the boat and rely on solely on their own integrity and their coxswain’s motivation, this is an easy way to assess where the stand with what remains of the course. Like the River Street bridge, this bridge follows a one-way traffic pattern; however, the Western Avenue Bridge carries west-bound traffic across the Charles River. The original bridge that was in this location was built in 1824. Interestingly, it was once named the River Street Bridge, like the one the crews had already rowed through downstream.
John Weeks Footbridge
After passing the John Weeks Footbridge, crews are just about halfway through the course. Since this is a pedestrian bridge, many spectators gather along the brick bridge to cheer on their favorite crews. When boats row through the bridge, the amount of energy that the cheering spectators bring provides a good motivational base for the rest of the 1.5 miles remaining in the course. However, this also offers a challenge to the coxswains that are trying to navigate their crews in the course. Many of the collisions that occur during the race happens at this bridge simply because of the fact that coxswains couldn’t be heard with the cheering, the cow bells, and the air horns of the crowd. This is also the location of one of the hardest bends in the course. This lends coxswain a tough job of juggling the loss of communication between passing boats, the physical turn, and motivating the rowers. The bridge was first built in 1927 as means of connection between the Harvard Business School’s Allston campus and the original Cambridge campus, long before the Head of the Charles was even a conceptual idea. Coxswains now sure curse the design and location of the bridge, although onlookers can admire the pleasing brick aesthetics.
Anderson Memorial Bridge
After the Weeks Footbridge and its heinous turn comes the Anderson Memorial Bridge. Where the Anderson Memorial Bridge stands once stood the Great Bridge, which was the first structure that was built across the Charles River. The Great Bridge was built in 1662 and stood until the current Anderson Memorial Bridge was completed in 1915. Now, some of the greatest crews row under this bridge as they near their completion of their second mile. When boats approach the bridge, on their starboard side they will see the Weld Boathouse which is the home of the Harvard’s Women’s team, named Radcliffe. After rowing through the bridge and being just under the two-mile mark, crews will pass the Newell Boathouse which houses the Harvard Men’s team. At the Harvard Boathouses there’s elite crews launching and invited spectators watching this point of the race. The adrenaline begins to pick up here for the tired rowers as the realize they are approaching their last mile.
Eliot Bridge
The Eliot Bridge is the final bridge of the course. Right before rowing through the bridge, crews row past the Cambridge Boat Club, the club who has hosted the regatta since 1965. This blue building is in many of the most popular photos from the regatta. After rowing through the bridge and the low arches it has, crews are approximately in their last half-mile. The energy picks up even more here for the excited rowers as they near closer and closer to the finish. Eliot bridge comes after a large S-turn right that requires rowers on the starboard side to row hard to help the coxswains make the turn. Some coxswains will even drop out a seat or two to make sure they can make the turn. While there’s another small port turn after this, coxswains can even feel their tensions release as they realize they’re approaching a straighter stretch towards the finish line. Rowers and coxswains can focus on barreling to the finish line with the thought of completing the class Head of the Charles Regatta much stronger than they started.
While every year each “Charles Experience” varies, the structure of the regatta remains the same. The Head of the Charles will be an adored annual affair for people of the rowing world, and others.
