Boston has been a war horse.
Boston ( pronounced [ ˈbɒstən ] ) is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States . The city proper covers 48 mi2 with an estimated population of 667,137 in 2015 , making it the largest city in New England and the 23rd most populous city in the United States . The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston , a Metropolitan Statistical Area ( MSA ) home to a census-estimated 4.7 million people in 2014 and ranking as the tenth-largest such area in the country . It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution , such as the Boston Massacre , the Boston Tea Party , the Battle of Bunker Hill , and the Siege of Boston .