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The Wild Side

Escape from civilization—right smack in the middle of it

thewildsidePhoto: Dan Brody, Newton Conservators

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ou’d never know that behind the bustling main streets and densely populated neighborhoods of the western suburbs, there’s a whole other world: miles of tranquil, wooded paths where aqueducts once ran. Here you can take a walk through the wilds, and explore the abandoned 19th-century Sudbury and Cochituate water routes. Relics of the past appear along the way. There’s an old gatehouse near the beginning of the line, and Echo Bridge, across which one of the aqueducts once ran, now is more useful for its spectacular view of Hemlock Gorge beneath. Burns

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The aqueducts through Boston’s western suburbs were built between 1846 and 1878 to carry water to the city from the Sudbury Reservoir and Lake Cochituate.