A report on Watertown, Massachusetts, Waltham, Massachusetts and Cambridge, Massachusetts

It is included in the Census Bureau's Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA–NH Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The county was created by the Massachusetts General Court on May 10, 1643, when it was ordered that "the whole plantation within this jurisdiction be divided into four shires." Middlesex initially contained Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, Sudbury, Concord, Woburn, Medford, and Reading.

Waltham

Newton was settled in 1630 as part of "the newe towne", which was renamed Cambridge in 1638.

The city is bordered by Waltham and Watertown on the north, Needham and the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston on the south, Wellesley and Weston on the west, and Brookline and the Brighton neighborhood of Boston on the east.

Weston was originally part of the Watertown settlement of 1630, but until the end of the century, the land was used mainly for grazing cattle.

The town is bordered by Newton and Waltham on the east; Wellesley to the south; Natick and Wayland to the west; and Lincoln to the north.

However, as of December 2019, only 10 inbound trips depart from the Cedarwood bus stop on weekdays—all during rush hour periods—with no weekend service. Bus Route 70 travels from Cedarwood to Central Square in Cambridge to connect with the MBTA Red Line.

The turnpike enters Suffolk County in Boston before reaching the "Allston–Brighton tolls", depositing traffic towards the Boston neighborhoods of Allston and Brighton, and the nearby city of Cambridge.

Complicating the matter, Callahan's planned extension route was not universally accepted by others within the state, such as newly elected Governor John A. Volpe and Newton Mayor Donald Gibbs, who sought to construct a freeway that would follow a different route between the Borders of Newton, Waltham and Watertown along the Charles River and U.S. Route 20 and be constructed using the funds now being provided by the Federal Highway Administration.

Belmont was established on March 10, 1849, by former citizens of, and land from the bordering towns of Watertown, to the south; Waltham, to the west; and Arlington, then known as West Cambridge, to the north.

Belmont is bordered by Cambridge on the east, Arlington on the north, Lexington on the northwest, Waltham on the west, and Watertown on the south.

Harvard University in Cambridge is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, with the largest financial endowment of any university, and whose Law School has spawned a contemporaneous majority of United States Supreme Court Justices.

Athenahealth, in Watertown, Massachusetts (headquarters)

AstraZeneca, in Waltham (R&D)

Near its mouth, it forms the border between downtown Boston and Cambridge and Charlestown.

Most of the watercraft activity occurs from the Museum of Science to the center of Watertown, above which is a dam.

Waltham was the site of the first fully integrated textile factory in America, built by Francis Cabot Lowell in 1814, and by the 19th century the Charles River was one of the most industrialized areas in the United States.