Royal Officials attributed the hot-house intensity of Boston's politics to its intimate siting upon a small penisula. In choosing the site for Boston in 1630, the first settlers were attracted to a peninsula that provided fresh water, a deep water harbor, and three hills that would aid in defense of the settlement from attack by land or sea. The small scale of this peninsula (2 1/2 miles long and 1 1/2 miles wide) gave the town of Boston a distinctive urban density. This animation is based on Captain Bonner's 1722 map of Boston. It shows how, in the years between 1643 and 1769, the town grew by building a narrow band of streets, houses and public buildings in confining space between the three hills (the "tremont") that lay at the center of a peninsula and the shoreline that teamed with wharfs and ships, ropewalks and drydocks.

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