North End pier reopens and buoys hope for harbor walk

The public quietly reclaimed a sliver of the Boston waterfront yesterday, taking back a wooden pier in the North End that had been closed since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The 40-foot wide wharf runs over algae-covered rocks along the edge of the red brick Coast Guard station.

A green bench there was empty yesterday, with no one gazing across the harbor at the obelisk on Bunker Hill or the masts of the USS Constitution.

"It's a small segment," said Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association. "But it's key. And it's progress on a federal base."

Since 1973, the goal to make Boston's entire 47-mile waterfront an accessible harbor walkway has been slowed by federal agencies exempt from local law. The Coast Guard had once allowed access to the pier, but it was closed after the 9/11 attacks and concrete barriers were placed on Commercial Street to stop would-be truck bombers.

Jitters calmed and the barriers were removed, but the pier remained locked.

"The whole country was shut down after 9/11; security was in overkill," said Captain Scott Keene, commanding officer of the Coast Guard in Boston. "We've come back from that."

The victory has emboldened Li, who might take on another federal agency blocking access to a large swath of waterfront on Fort Port Channel.

"I still have my eye on the Post Office," she said.

ANDREW RYAN