Your walk enters twenty-four acres of formal garden, the first public botanical garden in the United States, laid out here in 1837 on what had been a salt marsh. The Public Garden is distinguished from Boston Common beside it by its formality and its famous swan boats, which have carried passengers around the lagoon since 1877, powered by a pedaling operator concealed inside the swan form at the rear of the flat-bottomed boat. The tradition was started by Robert Paget, who was inspired by the opera Lohengrin, in which the hero arrives in a boat pulled by swans.
The original swan boats are still in service, paddled by members of the Paget family who have operated them continuously for 147 years. The lagoon bridge, cast iron, is the smallest suspension bridge in the world at 64 feet. Make Way for Ducklings, Robert McCloskey's 1941 children's book about a family of mallard ducks making their way through Boston to the Public Garden, placed this garden permanently in American childhood; the bronze duckling sculptures by Nancy Schön on the path near the Charles Street entrance have been rubbed smooth by generations of children's hands.