Through 1939...
Buidling on a history of innovation, industrialization, and business acumen dating back to the earliest European settlement, New England and the Route 128 region built early electronics and computing leadership on a solid foundation.
1940 to 1960
The launch of the MIT Radiation Laboratory at MIT began an era of substantial government R&D funding which nurtured and expanded public and private organizations focused on radar, computing, and other new technologies.
1961 to 1980
Burgeoning government investment, spurred by the Cold War, boosted tech development in the region. In parallel, other industries, notably minicomputers, grew rapidly,
1981 to the present
In the 1980s the tremendous growth in the region's tech economy -- due primarily to the continued growth of minicomputers and resurgent Cold War spending -- led to an era known as the Massachusetts Miracle. Subsequent years saw defense spending scaled back, the collapse of the minicomputer industry with the rise of the microprocessor -- and the growth of new sectors such as software, robotics, and biotech.
PHOTO: Route 128, looking north toward Route 30 overpass around 1950.
