In 1640, the Charlestown Ferry was granted to Harvard College, to the
support of which the town had been annually contributing, and had received
from the ferry fifty pounds for the year previous, 1639. This grant was
continued, and, for nearly one hundred and fifty years before the bridge
was built, it was a source of very handsome income to the institution. In
1644, it appears by the records of the town, William Bridge was appointed
to keep the ferry in place of Mr. Converse, and "to have a penny a person
for each that goes over, except they agree with him by the year, and two
pence a person for each that goes over unseasonably." When the bridge was
built in 1785, the gratuity to the college was continued by the terms of
the Act authorizing it; and the sum of two hundred pounds per year was
paid to it in commutation of its claim to the ferry.
Johnson, in his "Wonder-Working Providence," describes Boston as
surrounded by the brinish floods, and as having, on the north-west and
north-east, "two constant Faires, kept for traffique thereunto." A ferry
to Cambridge is spoken of in 1652; and in the fall of that year Mr. Cotton
took cold in crossing it, and died soon after.