East Boston is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, with approximately 40,000 residents. The community was created by connecting several islands using landfill and was annexed by Boston in 1836. East Boston is separated from the rest of the city by Boston Harbor and bordered by Winthrop, Revere, and the Chelsea Creek. Directly west of East Boston across Boston Harbor is the North End and Boston's Financial District. The neighborhood has long provided a foothold for the latest wave of immigrants, with Irish, Russian Jews and then Italians alternating as the predominant group. Today immigrants from Colombia, Brazil and elsewhere in South America have made East Boston one of the centers of Latino culture in New England.
The landmass that is East Boston today was originally five islands — Noddle, Hog (later Orient Heights), Breed's, Governor's, Bird and Apple — that were connected using landfill, the latter three as part of the expansion of Logan Airport during World War II. Not long after the settling of Boston, Noddle Island served as grazing land for cattle.
In 1801 William H. Sumner had proposed to the Federal Government that a turnpike that was planned to connect Salem to Boston take its route over the as yet undeveloped Noddle's Island. He argued that the route over Noddle’s Island would be more direct and easier to develop. He stated