Back Bay Area Dawn of the Millennium Over Boston Harbor From the Prudential SKYWALK   Next, let's exit the Public Garden at the Southwest corner and head down Boylston Street. The cross streets in the Back Bay are named alphabetically from Arlington to Gloucester. At the corner of Clarendon Street is Copley Square, home of Trinity Church. Trinity Church has a fantastic history. Built on landfill, as is all of Back Bay, The church is built on wood- en pilings in mud and the mud has to be kept wet, otherwise the pilings will rot. Somebody checks the water level below the church every day to make sure the pilings aren't getting dry.   On the South side of Copley Square is the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel.   Just down Boylston Street from Copley Square is the finish line for the Boston Marathon, which is run every year on Patriots Day, the third Monday in April. The race starts in Hopkinton and winds it's way for 26 Miles, 285 Yards through eight towns to the finish line in front of the Boston Public Library. The marathon always generates lots of excitement and huge crowds. All the streets around Boylston Street are closed to vehicles that day, so if you're going to watch the runners, it's best to take the T. Every year, radio station WZLX sponsors the Patriots festival out in front of the Pru. It's a great place to end up after watching the Marathon runners. With several stages featuring bands such as Brad Delp's "Beatlejuice" and lots of food stands, booths and beer gardens, it's where I always end up on Patriots Day. Speaking of the The Boston Library, it was the first free public lending library in the country. Taking up one whole city block, the library houses over 6.1 million books and over 1.6 million rare books and manuscripts. If we go back across Copley Square, we will come to the John Hancock Building and the John Hancock Tower. When the Hancock people hired I.M.Pei, the famous architect, to design the new Tower, They wanted to somehow keep the wonderful architecture of the old building, so they designed the new building to reflect the image of the old building. On the top of the old John Hancock Building, there is the famous Weather Beacon, which has been forecasting the weather for 65 years. It can be seen by ships miles out at sea and from all around Boston. There is a short poem that tells the story of how to interpret the signals from the beacon. "Steady Blue...Clear View. Flashing Blue...Clouds Due. Steady Red...Rain Ahead. Flashing Red...Snow Instead. Flashing Red in the Summer means the Red Sox game has been rained out. The Tower is the tallest building in New England. A couple blocks up Clarendon Street is the Hard Rock Café. A cool place to visit any time, I've been to several private functions and shows there...(Can you say "Iced shrimp for miles"?) Just around the corner from the Hard Rock Café, on Tremont Street, is the The Boston Cyclorama. This historic building was built to house a huge 360º panoramic painting of the Battle of Gettysburg. Now it is one of the galleries of the Boston Center for the Arts. If we cut through the Back Bay Train Station, we come to the Copley Place, the Home of Niemen Marcus ("Needless Mark-ups"), Tiffany's and other high-end retailers, The Copley Cinema ("shoebox theaters") and a fine Chili's Restaurant.

Get a CityPass to see six attractions at Half-Price with no waiting on lines.