Boston Travel Guide
Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1630, it is the largest city in New England. It has expanded throughout and beyond the Shawmut peninsula, and has become one of the oldest and most culturally significant cities in the United States. It is recognized as a global or world city. Boston was the location of several major events during the American Revolution, and was a major shipping port and manufacturing center. Today, the city is a center of higher education and health care. Its economy is also based on research, finance, and technology—principally biotechnology.
The city, of which citizens are called Bostonians, lies at the center of Greater Boston, a region that also includes the cities of Cambridge, Quincy, Newton, Somerville, and Chelsea, the towns of Brookline and Milton, and suburban communities farther from Boston. The Greater Boston area also encompasses portions of the states of New Hampshire and Rhode Island. The city also lies at the center of the Boston-Worcester-Manchester Combined Statistical Area (CSA), the fifth-largest CSA in the nation. The Boston metropolitan area, which covers less ground than the CSA, is the nation's eleventh largest.
