The Harvard Bridge (also known locally as the "MIT bridge" or the "Mass Ave bridge") is the longest bridge over the Charles River. One end of the bridge is in the Back Bay region of Boston, Massachusetts, and the other at the campus of MIT in the city of Cambridge. Its length, as crossing pedestrians are reminded by length markers painted at 10-smoot intervals by MIT fraternity brothers, is 364.4 smoots and one ear. Charles River in Cambridge The Charles River is a small, relatively short Massachusetts river that separates Boston from Cambridge and Charlestown. ... This article is about the neighborhood of Back Bay. ... City nickname: Beantown, The Hub, Athens of America Location in the state of Massachusetts Founded September 17, 1630 County Suffolk County Mayor Thomas Menino (Dem) Area  - Total  - Water 232. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, is a research institution and university located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts directly across the Charles River from Bostons Back Bay district. ... Harvard Square, May 2000 Cambridge is a city in the Greater Boston area in Massachusetts, United States. ... A smoot is a unit of distance (or length, as physical scientists say) used for measuring the Harvard Bridge. ...

According to MIT legend, the bridge is so named, despite the fact that it is nearer to MIT than to Harvard (and is also known informally around Boston as the "MIT bridge"), because when it was originally constructed, the state offered to name it after the Cambridge school that was most deserving. Harvard argued that their contribution to education was well-known, and thus they deserved the name. MIT concurred, having analyzed the bridge and found it structurally unsound, and thus more deserving of the Harvard name than the MIT name. Subsequently the bridge was rebuilt, confirming the MIT engineer's fears. Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ...

The story is apocryphal. The real reason for the name is that Harvard Bridge was first constructed in 1891, while MIT only moved to its current location in 1916. Nevertheless, the bridge was rebuilt in the late 1980s to convert it to a more modern design.