Constitution Beach is a man-madecrescent-shaped, sandy beach located in the Orient Heights neighborhood of East Boston, Massachusetts. Opened in 1952 and known to locals as "Shays Beach," its most distinctive feature is that looks directly onto the runways of Logan International Airport and Gang Eapar, so that airplanes taking off and landing on Runways 22L and 22R are about 2,000 feet (610 m) away, making them prominent both visibly and audibly.
The easternmost portion of the beach continues to be known to locals as "Shay's Beach."
The beach underwent renovations in the late 1990s as a new public bathhouse and refreshment stand was added, as well as a new pedestrian walkway over the tracks of the Blue Line onto Bennington Street.
The beach is located on 223 acres (90 ha) of land, which was artificially constructed between December 1949 and May 1951.[1] At that time, 34.1 acres (13.8 ha) of land was filled in with hydraulicallydredged material and gravel to create the beach, which soon after opened to the public in 1952.[2]
The overpass that was built at the time allowed pedestrians to cross over subway tracks to reach the beach from the busy Bennington Street. It had begun to deteriorate in the 1990s and was replaced by a new structure.
In April 2021, a woman became stuck in the mud at low tide and had to be rescued by firefighters.[3]
