Back Bay built on 19th-century landfill (example: Boston Public Library)

Boston's Back Bay neighborhood was created by filling tidal marshes and the Charles River basin in a large 19th-century landfill project begun in the 1850s and continuing into the 1890s. The Boston Public Library building at Copley Square sits on this reclaimed land and is part of the regularly cited example of Boston's extensive land reclamation. The street grid and many Back Bay street names were imposed on top of the newly created ground rather than inheriting a prior natural shoreline.