The Bunker Hill Monument was built to commemorate the Battle of Bunker Hill. The 221 foot granite obelisk was erected between 1827 and 1843 in Charlestown, Massachusetts with granite from Quincy, Massachusetts, conveyed to the site via the Granite Railway, built specially for that purpose, followed by a trip by barge. There are 294 steps to the top. The Bunker Hill Monument is not on Bunker Hill but instead on Breed's Hill, where most of the fighting in the misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill actually took place. The Monument Association, which had purchased the battlefield site, was forced to sell off all but the hill's summit in order to complete the monument. An exhibit lodge built adjacent to the monument in the late 19th century houses a statue of Warren and a diorama of the battle. Bunker Hill is one of the sites along the Freedom Trail and is part of Boston National Historical Park.

The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge (or Zakim Bridge) is a cable-stayed bridge across the Charles River in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a replacement for the Charlestown High Bridge, an older truss bridge constructed in the 1950s, and is the world's widest cable-stayed bridge. In a cable-stayed bridge, instead of hanging the roadbed from cables slung between towers, the cables run directly between the roadbed and the towers. Although cable-stayed bridges have been common in Europe since World War II, they are relatively new to North America. The bridge concept was developed by Swiss civil engineer Christian Menn and designed by American civil engineer Ruchu Hsu with Parsons Brinckerhoff. The bridge's full name commemorates both Boston civic leader and civil rights activist Leonard P. Zakim, who championed "building bridges between peoples", and the Battle of Bunker Hill.

The New England Holocaust Memorial is a memorial in Boston, Massachusetts. It is dedicated to the Jews who were killed in the Holocaust during World War II. Designed by Stanley Saitowitz and erected in 1995, the memorial consists of six glass towers that the visitor can walk under. Engraved on the towers are six million numbers that symbolize the six million killed in the Holocaust. There are also random messages on the towers. Underneath the towers, steam rises up through metal grates from a dark floor with twinkling lights on it. Each tower symbolizes a different major concentration camp (Majdanek, Chełmno, Sobibor, Treblinka, Bełżec, and Auschwitz-Birkenau), but can also be taken to be menorah candles, the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, and the six years that the mass extermination took place, 1939-1945. The New England Holocaust Memorial is located near the Freedom Trail, and is only a few steps off the trail, making it a popular tourist attraction.

Christopher Columbus Park is the first waterfront park in Boston, dedicated to the city's 200th anniversary celebrated in 1976. Since then its layout has set pattern for many other waterfront parks in Boston. In 1987 it expanded to include a rose garden ringed by a wrought iron fence, and a granite fountain in memory of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, who was born in the neighborhood, at 4 Garden Court in Boston’s North End. In 1992, the Beirut memorial was added to honor the nine marines from Massachusetts who lost their lives in a 1983 bomb attack. The memorial consists of a circular granite-seating wall and brickwork. Standing in its center, one can hear an echo. Christopher Columbus Park also features a Christopher Columbus monument and a score of other facilities including spacious lawns, a playground, a spray fountain, a performance area, and a wisteria covered trellis, shady during the day and illuminated during a holiday season.

The Custom House Tower - now Marriott's Custom House Hotel - is a skyscraper in McKinley Square, in the Financial District neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. Construction began in the mid-19th century; the tower was added in the 1910s. Standing 496 feet tall, the tower is currently Boston's 17th-tallest building. Ammi Burnham Young entered an 1837 competition to design the Boston Custom House, and won with his neoclassical design. This building was a cruciform (cross-shaped) Greek Revival structure, combining a Greek Doric portico with a Roman dome, resembled a four-faced Greek temple topped with a dome. The clock on the upper tower of the building is 22 feet in diameter. It was converted into an 87-room Marriott Vacation Club in 1997. The project also implied significant public access: a new ground floor, rotunda-level maritime museum and exhibit space, and guided tours of the refurbished observation deck on the tower’s 26th floor.

Boston City Hall has sparked off furious debates about architecture for the last forty years and you really should go and have a look at the building to see what all the fuss is about.

Built in 1969 by the architects Kallman McKinnell and Knowles, it is the seat of the Boston Municipal Government. The lowest portion is partially built into the hillside and houses the public department of the city government. The central portion is where the mayor and city council have their offices and the council chambers. The upper floors are given over to the administration and planning department offices. It’s a labyrinth of corridors, stairways and offices and has been condemned as space wasting and energy unfriendly.

The building is in the “Brutalist” style, an off-shoot of the modernist architectural movement. Le Corbusier was a follower of this style and it’s true that the city hall greatly resembles the monastery he designed in La Tourette. “Brutalist” comes from the French “beton brut”, literally “rough” or “unadorned” concrete, an idea of Le Corbusier. A lot of modernist architecture is very eye-catching, and the city hall is certainly that, but whether in a good or bad way is still at the centre of arguments.

A few years ago there was talk of demolishing the building and starting again from scratch, but the cost of moving the millions of tons of concrete was prohibitive and with the recent financial crisis the idea was scrapped.

In front of the old City Hall, on the spot where the original Boston Latin School once stood, you will find the Benjamin Franklin Statue.

The 8 foot bronze statue was executed by Richard S. Greenough and put in place in 1856. It was the first statue of a human to be placed in any city in America. A lot of people think that Benjamin Franklin was President of the United States, but in fact, although he was one of the Founding Fathers, a statesman, diplomat and the Ambassador to France, he was never president.

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston in 1706 and his father, who wanted him to become a clergyman, sent him to the Latin School. He didn’t finish his schooling and went to work for his brother who had a printing press. He began to publish his own articles and moved into the field of politics, where he was a staunch advocate for the abolition of slavery and the protection of Native American rights. He was the only person to have signed all four of the most important documents in American History: the Declaration of Independence, the Alliance with France Treaty, the Peace with Great Britain Treaty and the Constitution of the United States.

Benjamin Franklin was also a scientist; in 1749 he invented the lightning rod. In his role as Statesman he formed the 1st public lending library and the 1st fire department in Pennsylvania.

The Old Corner Bookstore is a historic building in the center of Boston, Massachusetts. It is located at the corner of Washington and School Streets, along the Freedom Trail of revolutionary and early American historic sites. The building itself was constructed in 1712 by Thomas Crease as a residence and apothecary shop. From 1832 to 1865, it was home to Ticknor and Fields, a publishing company founded by William Ticknor, later renamed when he partnered with James Thomas Fields. For part of the nineteenth century, the firm was one of the most important publishing companies in the United States, and the Old Corner Bookstore became a meeting-place for such authors as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is Boston Landmark under the auspices of the Boston Landmarks Commission.

Along the Boston Freedom Trail you will come across a small park where you will see the Irish Famine Memorial. It comprises two statues, one of a mother, father and son obviously weak and ill, in attitudes of despair and supplication; the second is of (perhaps) the same family, well-dressed, well-fed and wearing hopeful expressions. Eight plaques around the statues tell the sad story of how this memorial came to be erected in 1998.

In 1845 a series of catastrophes in Ireland led to a five year period of famine, poverty and disease. It began with the failure of the potato crops, which were the main source of income and food for many Irish families. The English Administrators did little or nothing to help the people and food became perilously scarce. As more and more families succumbed to mal-nutrition, disease began to spread. Hunger and sickness killed over a million people and over 2 million fled the country, most of them crossing the Atlantic and arriving in America.

About 200,000 Irish refugees settled in Boston, living in appalling conditions of poverty in the insalubrious waterfront area of Boston’s North End. Luckily the Irish are an optimistic people, and their will to live and to make a better life for their children paid off and they began to prosper. As Boston is considered the Irish capital in America, it is only fitting that a memorial should be raised there to remind future generations that nothing is gained without a struggle.

Founded in 1660, the Granary Burying Ground in Massachusetts is the city of Boston's third-oldest cemetery. Located on Tremont Street, it is the final resting place for many notable Revolutionary War-era patriots, including three signers of the Declaration of Independence, Paul Revere and the five victims of the Boston Massacre. The cemetery's Egyptian revival gate and fence were designed by Boston architect Isaiah Rogers (1810-1849), who designed an identical gate for Newport's Touro Cemetery. Prominently displayed in the Burying Ground is an obelisk erected in 1827 to the parents and relatives of Benjamin Franklin who was born in Boston and is buried in Philadelphia. The oldest memorial in the yard lies near the Franklin monument memorializing John Wakefield, aged 52 who died 18 June 1667. Why there is a seven year gap between the establishment of the burying ground and the oldest memorial is unknown.

When you visit Boston, you will of course stroll through Boston Common, which has many historical sites and monuments. You will find here the Brewer Fountain.

This elegant fountain was a gift to the city, offered by Gardner Brewer in 1868. Brewer was born in Boston in 1800 and was one of the richest merchants in the city. He was a staunch Republican and played an active role in politics, before founding one of the biggest dry-goods companies in Boston.

While in Paris for the World Trade Fair in 1855 he fell in love with the original fountain which had been cast by Liénard and which won him a gold medal. Brewer commissioned a copy of the fountain and had it shipped back to Boston. Similar copies, but in iron, can be found in Lyons and Bordeaux. The only other bronze copy was cast for a viceroy of Egypt.

The fountain is made of bronze set in a stone basin; it is 22ft high and weighs over 6800kg. The four figures around the base are Neptune, the Roman God of the sea, Amphitrite, one of his wives, Acis, the son of a river-nymph and his beloved Galatea, a sea-nymph. The fountain fell into disuse and not functioned for long until it was repaired in 2009.

One of the oldest city parks in the US, Boston Common dates back to 1634. It's the perfect place to enjoy a picnic during the summer, or to skate during the winter on the Frog Pond. The park's pavilion is an architectural work of art that completes the beautiful atmosphere.

Boston Common is a public park where informal gatherings, concerts and softball games are often organised. It is also full of historical landmarks and one of them is the Soldiers and Sailors Monument which you will find on Flag Staff Hill.

This impressive monument, 126ft high and 38 square feet in circumference, is dedicated to the soldiers and sailors of the US Civil War. It was designed by Martin Milmore and dedicated in 1877. The design is Neo-Classical and the victory column is made of white granite.

At the base of the monument you will see four bronze, bas-relief plaques depicting scenes from the Civil War: The Departure for the War showing a regiment in front of the Massachusetts State House, The Sanitary Commission showing medical care on the battlefield, a battle between Union Sailors against the CSS Virginia and the fourth plaque depicting the Return from the War.

The four granite statues above the base represent the North, South, East and West parts of the reunited nation. There were once four bronze statues on the pedestals between the bas-reliefs, representing History, Peace, the Army and the Navy, but they have been removed to keep them safe from vandals who kept pinching pieces of them for souvenirs. The statue on top of the monument is the emblematic female figure of AMERICA wearing a crown of 13 stars. In her right hand she holds a sword and a laurel leaf; in her left a flag of the United States. Around her feet are four stone eagles, the national bird and symbol of the United States of America.

Boston Public Garden is the first public botanical garden in the United States; it opened in 1837. This lovely garden is full of beautiful flowers, fountains and a lake and since 1987 it has been classed a National Historical Landmark. It seems only fitting that you will find here the George Washington Monument.

The monument is 38ft high – the bronze equestrian statue of Washington is 22 feet high – and is the largest sculpture in Boston. It was designed by Thomas Ball and was cast in 1869, later than planned because bronze was scarce during the years of the Civil War.

Of course, everyone knows that Washington was the first President of the United States and the “Father of the Nation”, but the statue shows him, not in his role as President, but as the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. In truth, George Washington felt more comfortable as a soldier than as a statesman. He was a colonel in the British Army in the French and Indian wars, but led the Continental Army against them in the War for Independence. At the head of his army, he forced the British out of Boston in 1776.

George Washington retired from politics in 1797 (he refused to serve a third term as President) and returned to his home in Mount Vernon in Virginia, where he died two years later, probably from pneumonia. His last great act was in his will, where he freed all the slaves on his property, setting an example that eventually led to the abolition of slavery in the United States.

In downtown Boston, flanking the Charles River Esplanade, you will find the Hatch Memorial Shell.

The Shell is a popular outdoor concert site, where during the spring and summer months you can enjoy weekend and nightly concerts. It is also used as an open-air cinema, for political speeches and is the rallying point for the annual Boston AIDS Walk and Larry Kessler 5K Run.

The original shell was put up as a temporary concert site in 1928 for the Boston Pops Orchestra who played there every 4th July. It was made out of wood and a second temporary shell made out of metal replaced it in 1934, the plans to make it a permanent building were scrapped during the Great Depression.

Today’s Shell was built in 1940 to plans by Richard J. Shaw. It was paid for by Maria Hatch and dedicated to her late brother, Edward, a Boston real estate auctioneer. The intricate wood panelling of the interior of the shell was done by hand by Howard Brickman, one of Boston’s master craftsmen. In 1991 the shell was repaired and the acoustics were modernised.

The Boston Pops Orchestra was founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Boston Pops play light classical and popular music and among their directors were Arthur Fiedler and John Williams (music for Star Wars). The Boston Pops still play at the Hatch Shell every 4th July.

The John Hancock Tower, officially named Hancock Place and colloquially known as The Hancock, is a 60-story, 790-foot skyscraper in Boston. The tower, the tallest in the city, was designed by Henry N. Cobb of the firm now known as Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and was completed in 1976. In 1972, Cobb's design of the Hancock Tower took the glass monolith skyscraper concept to new heights. The tower is an achievement in minimalist, modernist skyscraper design. The largest panes of glass possible were used. There are no spandrel panels, and the mullions are minimal. Cobb added a geometric modernist twist by using a parallelogram shape for the tower floor plan. From the most common views, this design makes the corners of the tower appear very sharp. The highly reflective window glass is tinted slightly blue, which results in the tower having only a slight contrast with the sky on a clear day.

In Boston’s South End area you will find the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and you really shouldn’t miss visiting this beautiful building which is the Mother Church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and the seat of the Cardinal Archbishop.

Built of Roxbury puddingstone and limestone, the cathedral was designed in the 19th century in the Gothic Revival style by Patrick Keeley and is the biggest church in Boston, being 364ft long, 90ft wide and 120ft high and can house over 1700 people.

The interior’s long nave is flanked by two rows of graceful arched columns that support the ceiling. The Cardinal Archbishop officiates from his chair in the Sanctuary. This chair bears his coat of arms and his motto “Do whatever he tells you”.

The South Transept leads to the Chapel of Our Lady which has a statue of Our Blessed Mother, made in Germany. The North Transept leads to the Chapel of Blessed Sacrament; here you can admire the lovely Tabernacle that came from Spain. The magnificent pipe organ was made in 1875 by the Hook and Hastings Company. The most breathtaking part of the cathedral is the wonderful stained glass windows. There are thirty two, most of them donated by the wealthy families of Boston.

Pope Jean Paul II officiated at a service in the cathedral during his 1979 visit to the United States.