reclaimed from the swamps along the Charles River. The Cambridge and Concord Turnpike (now Broadway) was connected to the bridge's western approach around 1812. The bridge became toll-free on January 30, 1858. The first horsecar line in Boston, the Cambridge Railroad running between Bowdoin Square and Harvard Square over the West Boston Bridge, opened on March 26, 1856. The bridge was the primary Boston–Cambridge link for the growing horsecar system, which was eventually consolidated as the West End Street Railway. The Harvard Square–Bowdoin Square line was electrified on February 16, 1889, by the West End - the second of its Boston-area lines to be so equipped. In 1898, the Cambridge Bridge Commission was created to construct "a new bridge across Charles River, to be known as Cambridge Bridge, at, upon, or near the site of the so-called West Boston Bridge... suitable for all the purposes of ordinary travel between said cities, and for the use of the elevated and surface cars of the Boston Elevated Railway Company." At its first meeting on June 16, 1898, Willam Jackson was appointed Chief Engineer; shortly afterward Edmund M. Wheelwright was appointed Consulting Architect. Both then traveled to Europe, where they made a thorough inspection of notable bridges in France, Germany, Austria and Russia. Upon their return, they prepared studies of various types of bridges, including bridges of stone and steel arch spans. Wheelwright had been inspired by the 1893 Columbian Exposition and was attempting to emulate the great bridges of Europe. Although both state and national regulations at the time required a draw bridge, it became evident that a bridge without a draw would be cheaper, better-looking, and avoid disruption to traffic. The state altered its regulations accordingly, and after the War Department declined to follow suit, the United States Congress drew up an act permitting the bridge, which President William McKinley signed on March 29, 1900. Construction began in July 1900; the bridge opened to traffic in August 1906, and was formally dedicated on July 31, 1907. The Cambridge Bridge was renamed Longfellow Bridge in 1927, by the Massachusetts General Court to honor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who had written about the predecessor West Boston Bridge in his 1845 poem "The Bridge". There are pedestrian stairs on both sides of the bridge at both ends adorned with stone towers. Originally, these led to the Charles River shoreline, and on the Cambridge side they