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Known as the "Heart of
the Commonwealth," Worcester, Massachusetts with a population of 170,000
remains today what it has been for decades, New England's second largest
city and site of a diverse and pioneering economy. First incorporated as
a township in 1722, this settlement forty miles west of Boston soon became
an important transportation center on the Boston Turnpike linking the capital
city with New York and the west. One of America's first internal commercial
waterways, the Blackstone Canal, linked the town with Providence, Rhode
Island to the South and gave direct access to the Atlantic Ocean.
Worcester played its role in America's
early history General Washington rode through here. The cannon used at
Dorchester Heights to drive the British from Boston were literally dragged
through its streets. Abraham Lincoln slept here, and John Adams taught
school here. Industry thrived here; steel fabrication and wire drawing,
printing and envelop manufacturing, abrasives and machine tooling. The
valentine card got its start here. America's first experiments in rockets
started here. The birth control pill was invented here.
Today, the city has changed from
its heavy manufacturing past to new directions in economic enterprise.
Biotechnology is a major enterprise within the city, as are eight colleges
and a state university medical school. It is an inland port of entry for
foreign commerce, relying upon major interstate highways and rail lines
which traverse the municipality. A city-owned airport has been improved
with a new $15 million modernized air terminal to accommodate passengers
and air freight. More than fifty intracity bus trips originate in the downtown
every day. Worcester is nonetheless predominantly residential in character.
Worcester Mass is located in Central
Massachusetts, bordered by Holden and West Boylston on the northwest and
north, Shrewsbury on the east, Millbury and Auburn on the south, and Leicester
and Paxton on the west. Worcester is 40 miles west of Boston and 51 miles
east of Springfield. |