The pneumatic hammer driving piles at Back Bay's Landmark Center served as a soundtrack for my ninth grade at Boston Latin School back in 2013. It also brought my other senses outside: why did it smell like the ocean on the days they dug? Mr. Akeson, my homeroom teacher, had the answer: we stood on land reclaimed from the Massachusetts Bay, the ground was still saturated with seawater. In college, I decided to revisit this topic to learn how Boston got its land.