Greater Boston is the area of Massachusetts closely surrounding Boston, Massachusetts. The conurbation has a total population of about 5.8 million. In addition to Boston, other cities include Cambridge, Quincy, Lynn, and Newton. Greater Boston also includes Brookline and the largest town in North America, Framingham. Greater Boston overlaps the North and South Shores, as well as the MetroWest region.

Greater Boston is more citified and industrialized than the other regions of Massachusetts, such as the more rural Western Massachusetts and the beach communities of Cape Cod. The area features a great number of universities. Despite this, many areas remain somewhat working class, although increasingly less-so in the past two decades.

Greater Boston encompasses many significant locations in American history and culture. Examples include the Paul Revere House, the Old North Church, the Old Granary Burying Ground, the site of the Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, the USS Constitution, Lexington and Concord, Walden Pond, the site of the Salem witch trials, and the Christian Science Mother Church. Former President John Adams was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, as was former President John Quincy Adams. Former President John F. Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. Former President George H. W. Bush was born in Milton.

Dunkin Donuts started in Greater Boston. Likewise, Howard Johnson's restaurants and lodgings began there.

Major Companies in Greater Boston

• Companies outside Boston
  • Bose Corporation, in Framingham (Headquarters)
  • Polaroid Corporation, in Waltham
  • Raytheon, in Waltham (Headquarters)
  • Avid Technology, Inc , in Tewksbury (Headquarters)
  • Reebok, in Canton (Headquarters)
  • Boston Scientific Corporation , in Natick (Headquarters)
  • Novartis AG, Inc , in Cambridge (Research Headquarters)
  • Genzyme Corporation , in Cambridge (Headquarters)

• Major Companies inside Boston
  • The Gillette Company (headquarters)
  • New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc (headquarters)
  • John Hancock Financial Services, Inc (headquarters)
  • Houghton Mifflin Company Headquarters (headquarters)

Major League Sports

• Baseball: Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in Kenmore Square
• Basketball: Boston Celtics at the Fleet Center in Central Boston
• Ice hockey: Boston Bruins at the Fleet Center in Boston
• American Football: New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough
• Soccer: New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium

Traditional Sporting Events

• The Boston Marathon follows a course from Hopkinton to Boston
• The Head of the Charles Regatta

Higher Education

• Babson College in Wellesley
• Bentley College in Waltham
• Berklee College of Music in Boston
• Boston College in Newton and Boston
• Boston Conservatory in Boston
• Boston University in Boston
• Brandeis University in Waltham
• Curry College in Milton
• Emerson College in Boston
• Emmanuel College in Boston
• Harvard University in Cambridge
• Hebrew College in Newton
• Lasell College in Newton
• Lesley University in Cambridge
• Massachusetts College of Art in Boston
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge
• Mount Ida College in Newton
• New England Conservatory of Music in Boston
• Northeastern University in Boston
• Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill
• School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
• Simmons College in Boston
• Suffolk University in Boston
• Tufts University in Medford
• University of Massachusetts, Boston Campus
• Wellesley College in Wellesley
• Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston
• Wheelock College in Boston

Historical figures and celebrities from Greater Boston

• John Adams - 2nd President of the United States
• John Quincy Adams - 6th President of the United States
• Samuel Adams - revolutionary
• Aerosmith - rock band
• Ben Affleck - actor
• Louisa May Alcott - writer
• Charles Bulfinch - architect
• John Singleton Copley - painter
• Matt Damon - actor
• Michael Dukakis - former Massachusetts governor, Democratic candidate in the 1988 election
• Mary Dyer - religious martyr
• Ralph Waldo Emerson - transcendentalist
• Benjamin Franklin - statesman, scientist
• Buckminster Fuller - inventor
• Nathaniel Hawthorne - writer
• Oliver Wendell Holmes - writer
• Winslow Homer - painter
• Edward M. Kennedy - United States Senator
• John F. Kennedy - 35th President of the United States
• John F. Kerry - United States Senator, Democratic candidate in the 2004 election
• Amos Lawrence - philanthropist
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - poet
• Robert Lowell - poet
• Cotton Mather - preacher, writer
• Leonard Nimoy - actor
• Tip O'Neill - longest serving Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
• Theodore Parker - transcendentalist
• Edgar Allen Poe - writer
• Paul Revere - revolutionary
• Louis Sullivan - architect
• Henry David Thoreau - writer
• Uma Thurman - actress
• Barbara Walters - newscaster
• Daniel Webster - statesman
• James McNeill Whistler - painter
• Ted Williams - Boston Red Sox player

Transportation in Greater Boston

See also Boston transportation

Highways

• Central Artery/Tunnel Project (Interstate 93 within Boston)
• Interstate 95: North to New Hampshire and Maine; south to Providence, Rhode Island and beyond
• US Route 1
• Interstate 93: North to New Hampshire; south to Canton
• US Route 3
• Massachusetts Route 2: Northwest and west
• The Massachusetts Turnpike (Interstate 90): West to Framingham, Massachusetts and beyond
• Massachusetts Route 9: Western suburbs
• Massachusetts Route 24: South toward Newport, Rhode Island
• Massachusetts Route 3 : Southeast through South Shore to Cape Cod
• Massachusetts Route 128 (I-95/I-93): Circumferential Highway (close to Boston)
• Interstate 495: Circumferential (farther from Boston)
  • Route 128 is sometimes regarded as the unofficial boundary of the Greater Boston region, especially to the north and south. When the name Greater Boston is used in a more inclusive sense, I-495 is sometimes regarded as the boundary.

Bridges and Tunnels

• Callahan Tunnel
• Sumner Tunnel
• Ted Williams Tunnel
• Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge
• Tobin Bridge

Airports

• Logan International Airport, Boston
• Hanscom Field, Bedford
• Norwood Municipal Airport
• Worcester, Massachusetts Airport
• T. F. Green Airport, Providence, Rhode Island
• Manchester, New Hampshire Airport

Rail Transportation

• Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA, The T)
  • Red Line: Boston–Cambridge
  • Orange Line: Boston (Jamaica Plain)–Malden
  • Green Line: Brookline and Newton–Cambridge
  • Blue Line: Boston–Revere
  • Commuter rail
• Amtrak

The first railway line in the United States was in Quincy. See Neponset River.

Ocean Transportation

• Port of Boston (Massport)
• Cape Cod Canal

Geography

• Rivers
  • Charles River
  • Neponset River

• Hills
  • Great Blue Hill