Broad Canal is a short surviving slice of the canal system Henry Hill and Rufus Davenport laid out in 1806, when Cambridge was an active seaport. In 1806 Henry Hill, Rufus Davenport, and others laid out a canal system across the land and tidal flats along the Charles River, and Broad Canal was dug before 1810. Picture the channel as it was: 80 feet (24 m) wide from the low-water mark to Portland Street, and by 1874 the lower part between First and Third Streets had been recorded as 100 feet (30 m) wide.
Connecting canals ran through much of today’s East Cambridge, forming a web of docks and wharves where ships once moved and goods were landed. Much has changed: no visible trace remains of that system, and extensive infills have removed all remnants of Cambridge’s seaport docks and wharves. Yet the canal is not entirely lost — about 1,000 feet (300 m) still exists between the Charles River and Kendall Square.
Once 80 feet wide from the low-water mark to Portland Street, the canal has been cut down by infill to about 1,000 feet of water between the Charles River and Kendall Square.