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Modern Boston today has a population
of approximately 500,000 and sprawls around the tiny peninsula upon
which it was founded in 1630. Its English Puritan founders were
attracted to the land because it was originally surrounded on nearly all
sides by water, making it easy to defend. A deepwater harbor at its
front door and a river at its back also made the town a natural choice
for the Colonial capital, since 17th-century transportation and
communication were largely dependent on boats. For its first 150 years,
Boston was the leading Colonial port in North America, its wharves
crowded with sailing vessels bound to and from every continent on the
globe. Although other neighbors along the Eastern Seaboard outgrew
Boston by the end of the 18th century, the city continued to amass great
wealth with maritime trade throughout the 1800s, and some of the world's
finest shipbuilders continued to ply their craft in Boston until well
after World War II. Now that the city's economy has shifted from
manufacturing to high-tech, high finance, and higher education, the
revitalized piers bustle with private yachts and harbor cruise boats,
while seaport warehouses find new life as apartments and offices.
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