Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum at Congress Street
Why is it significant?
You have reached the Congress Street Bridge over the Fort Point Channel, home to the floating Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum.
Key Facts
| Place | Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum at Congress Street |
|---|---|
| Address | 306 Congress St, Boston, MA 02210, United States |
| Geo Coordinates | 42.35220, -71.05150 |
| Part of Walk | Financial District, Custom House and Fort Point Channel: Boston's Commercial Waterfront |
| Generated | Generated |
You have reached the Congress Street Bridge over the Fort Point Channel, home to the floating Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum. Moored in the channel below are meticulously crafted full-scale replicas of the eighteenth-century merchant ships Beaver and Eleanor, identical to the vessels that carried the fateful British East India Company tea in December 1773.
On the chilly night of December 16, 1773, over one hundred members of the Sons of Liberty, disguised as Mohawk warriors to conceal their identities, marched from the Old South Meeting House down to Griffin's Wharf. Over three tense hours, they hauled three hundred and forty chests of Darjeeling and Bohea black tea onto the decks, split them open with tomahawks, and dumped forty-six tons of tea into the harbor waters.
The value of the destroyed tea exceeded ten thousand British pounds—equivalent to nearly two million dollars today. Remarkably, the disciplined patriots harmed no crew members and damaged no other property, even replacing a broken padlock on one ship's hatch the following morning to demonstrate that their action was a solemn political protest against taxation without representation rather than lawless vandalism. Inside the museum rests the Robinson Half Chest, the only known surviving tea chest from the Boston Tea Party, lovingly preserved for generations by a local New England family. From the bridge, visitors can watch live reenactments as historic actors throw replica chests into the tidal channel amid cheers of "No taxation without representation!"
Gazing down at the tall rigging, wooden hulls, and hemp ropes of the historic tall ships, the sheer audacity of the Boston patriots comes alive. This defiant act of economic rebellion stunned the British Empire and set the thirteen American colonies on an irrevocable course toward the Declaration of Independence.
Cross the bridge eastward onto the wooden boardwalk beside the Giant Hood Milk Bottle.