Bill Russell Bridge
bridge in Boston, Massachusetts, USA
The Bill Russell Bridge, officially the William Felton "Bill" Russell Bridge, is located in Boston and spans the Charles River. As the river's easternmost crossing, the bridge connects the neighborhoods of Charlestown and the North End. The bridge carries a portion of the Freedom Trail linking to the USS Constitution and Bunker Hill. To the north of the bridge, Route 99 begins and the street becomes New Rutherford Avenue.
The original structure was completed in 1900. Replacement of that bridge started in fall 2018; following several delays, construction was completed in 2025. The new bridge was named in honor of Bill Russell, a notable figure in the history of the Boston Celtics and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in October 2024.
Prior bridges
The first government-sanctioned ferry crossing of the Charles was chartered at this location in the 1630s. It was operated by various individuals until it was given to Harvard College "in perpetuity" in 1640, to support the college financially. In 1640, the Massachusetts General Court granted Harvard College the revenue from the Boston-Charlestown ferry to help support the institution.
The public source identifies “Bill Russell Bridge” as bridge in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bill, Russell and Bridge.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1066692. Authority coordinates are 42.369, -71.060. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1900, 2018, 2025 and 2024.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bill Russell Bridge” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.