Boston University Bridge

Boston University Bridge
The Boston University bridge and Grand Junction Railroad bridge, seen from the Boston side looking upstream.
Coordinates	42°21′09″N 71°06′38″W / 42.35238°N 71.11066°W / 42.35238; -71.11066Coordinates: 42°21′09″N 71°06′38″W / 42.35238°N 71.11066°W / 42.35238; -71.11066
Carries	Route 2
Crosses	Charles River
Locale	Boston, Massachusetts to Cambridge, Massachusetts
Characteristics
Design	Truss through arch bridge
Material	steel
History
Designer	Andrew Canzanelli
Opened	1928

The Boston University Bridge, originally the Cottage Farm Bridge and commonly referred to as the BU Bridge, is a steel truss through arch bridge with a suspended deck carrying Route 2 over the Charles River, connecting Boston to Cambridge, Massachusetts. According to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials route log, the bridge also carries U.S. Route 3 across the river to its southern terminus at U.S. Route 20 (also known as Commonwealth Avenue). However, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation does not consider the bridge to be a part of US 3; it continues the route along Memorial Drive in Cambridge until it meets Route 2A at the end of the Harvard Bridge.

It was renamed for Boston University, which lies at the south end of the bridge, in 1949.

The BU Bridge was built in 1928, on a design by Andrew Canzanelli, replacing an 1850s drawbridge known as the Brookline Bridge. Canzanelli also designed the Weeks footbridge and the first shell constructed on the Esplanade.

The bridge crosses diagonally over an older, now single-tracked railroad-only bridge carrying the Grand Junction Line. This bridge, formerly owned by CSX Transportation, was purchased by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the MBTA in 2010. The long-postponed Urban Ring mass transit project is expected to include a bridge at or near this location, to carry the planned route across the Charles River.