| Walden Street Cattle Pass | |
| Location: | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Coordinates: | 42.3894°N -71.1247°W |
| Built: | 1857 |
| Added: | June 3, 1994 |
| Mpsub: | Cambridge MRA |
| Refnum: | 94000554 |
The Walden Street Cattle Pass, also referred to as the cow path,[1] is an historic site adjacent to the MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line right-of-way, under the Walden Street Bridge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
The site, a tunnel for moving cattle between the railroad and the nearby stockyards of the 19th century, was built in 1857. The cattle yards were closed in 1868[2] or "about 1871",[3] but the cattle trade continued; "until the 1920s, cows were unloaded here and driven down Massachusetts Avenue, through Harvard Square, and across the river to the Brighton Abattoir".
Restoration (re-pointing) of the tunnel's brickwork was carried out during the 2007–08 replacement of the second-generation bridge dating from 1914.[4] The third-generation bridge opened for traffic in December 2008. The Cambridge City Council discussed creation of a vantage point for viewing the tunnel, ca. 2008, but no action was taken.
