It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the U. Harvard University , an Ivy League university founded in Cambridge in , is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Kendall Square , near MIT in the eastern part of Cambridge, has been called "the most innovative square mile on the planet" due to the high concentration of startup companies that have emerged there since Founded in December during the colonial era , Cambridge was one among the first cities established in the Thirteen Colonies , and it went on to play a historic role during the American Revolution.
In May , approximately 16, American patriots assembled in Cambridge Common to begin organizing a military retaliation against British troops following the Battles of Lexington and Concord. On July 2, , two weeks after the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia formally established the Continental Army and appointed George Washington commander of it, Washington arrived at Cambridge Common to take command of the Patriot soldiers camped there. Many of these soldiers played a role in supporting Washington's successful Siege of Boston , which trapped garrisoned British troops from moving by land, forcing the British to ultimately abandon Boston.
Cambridge Common is thus celebrated as the birthplace of the Continental Army. The Massachusett inhabited the area that is now called Cambridge for thousands of years prior to European colonization of the Americas , most recently under the name Anmoughcawgen , which means 'fishing weir' or 'beaver dam' in Natick.
In December , the site of present-day Cambridge was chosen for settlement because it was safely upriver from Boston Harbor , making it easily defensible from attacks by enemy ships. The first houses were built in the spring of The settlement was initially referred to as "the newe towne". Located at the first convenient Charles River crossing west of Boston , Newtowne was one of several towns, including Boston, Dorchester , Watertown , and Weymouth , founded by the original Puritan colonists of the Massachusetts Bay Colony under Governor John Winthrop.
Its first preacher was Thomas Hooker , who led many of its original inhabitants west in to found Hartford and the Connecticut Colony ; before leaving, they sold their plots to more recent immigrants from England. The marketplace where farmers sold crops from surrounding towns at the edge of a salt marsh since filled remains within a small park at the corner of John F.
