set aside and governed by a public body for the enjoyment of the common people." Over the next year, some 300 structures were cleared from on and around the beach, the train tracks were moved approximately 400 yards away from the water, a boulevard was put in place to separate buildings and houses from the sand, and a bandstand and pavilions were constructed. An estimated 45,000 people showed up on opening day to enjoy the first public beach in the United States. Fittingly, the small rotary at the start of the beach's southern end is named "Eliot Circle." Eliot died March 25, 1897, at age 37 from spinal meningitis. Legacy Eliot's work has left a lasting mark on greater Boston. He published conceptual plans for the esplanades along the Charles River in Boston proposed earlier by Charles Davenport and others, and as the consulting landscape architect for the Metropolitan Park Commission, he supervised the acquisition of much of the riverfront in Boston, Watertown, and Newton. He also directed the landscape work on the Cambridge esplanade for the city's park commission. The esplanade in Boston was later realized following designs by Guy Lowell (1910) and Arthur Shurcliff (1936). In 1883, he designed Longfellow Park between the Cambridge home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the Charles River. Up until his death he was the partner in charge of the firm's work at Fresh Pond in Cambridge. In addition to his practice, Eliot became a regular contributor of professional articles to Garden and Forest Magazine. After Eliot's death, Olmsted's son and stepson reconstituted their partnership as the Olmsted Brothers, which continued for a half-century as one of the best-known landscape design firms in the United States, and went on to design thousands of parks, gardens, and landscapes in the 20th century. Eliot's writings have been characterized as the inspiration behind the establishment of Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island in Maine. Monuments and memorials Charles Eliot Memorial - Charles River Esplanade - Boston MA Eliot Memorial Bridge - Great Blue Hill - Milton MA Eliot Bridge - Cambridge MA See also Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston References Further reading American landscape architects Eliot family (America) Architects from Massachusetts 1859 births People from Brookline, Massachusetts Harvard College alumni 1897 deaths Neurological disease deaths in Massachusetts Infectious disease deaths in Massachusetts Deaths from meningitis Arnold Arboretum