Alewife of many native species of fish. In an effort to control them biologically, Pacific salmon were introduced, only partially successfully. As a marine fish, the alewife is a US National Marine Fisheries Service "Species of Concern". Alewives reach a maximum length of about 40 cm (16 in), but have an average length of about 25 cm (10 in). The front of the body is deep and larger than other fish found in the same waters, and its common name is said to come from comparison with a corpulent female tavernkeeper ("ale-wife"). In southwestern Nova Scotia, it is called a kiack
Alewife Brook Reservation Parkway, along the west side of the Alewife Station parking garage, and proceeding northwest along the right-of-way of the present-day Minuteman Bikeway. The Watertown Branch Railroad was opened in 1851, branching from the Fitchburg and curving south behind what is now the Fresh Pond Shopping Center on the east side of Alewife Brook Parkway (then merely swampland). By 1852, several spurs were serving local freight customers, including ice houses on the south side of Spy Pond. In 1870, the Boston and Lowell Railroad bought the former Lexington and West Cambridge Railroad, by then renamed the Lexington and Arlington Railroad, and