Here’s another amazing historical planning map, this time from Boston in 1945. Visually, it looks quite similar to this map, but shows an amazing array of planned extensions to the existing system.

Some of them were built soon after this map was drawn up:the Revere (Blue Line) extension to Wonderland was essentially complete by 1952, although this map shows the line heading even further north. Others took much, much longer: the (Red Line) to Quincy and Braintree wasn’t operational until 1980.

Other lines ended up substantially different to what is shown here: the proposed line east of Harvard takes a circuitous route through East Watertown before ending in Arlington Heights, while others were never built at all, like the extension of the old Everett/Forest Hills elevated line to Dedham.

Interestingly, it looks like there were plans to convert the current Framingham/Worcester commuter rail line into rapid transit: the map shows proposed track emerging from the subway and passing through Trinity Place station (the original name for Back Bay) before heading out towards Auburndale.

Seriously, there are so many interesting things about this map that I can’t list them all here: go take a look at it BIG here.

What we like: Incredible look at ambitious post-war plans for the Boston rapid transit system, especially to compare what got built and what didn’t. The detail is amazing, with each station, bridge, overpass and tunnel being individually and accurately drawn.

What we don’t like: Absolutely nothing. I could look at this for days.

Our rating: 5 stars, duh!

Source: Otto Vondrak/Flickr