Here’s a fantastic poster designed as the centre spread of an advertising supplement to various Bay Area newspapers to celebrate the first ten years of BART (1972–1982). The immediately recognisable system diagram is overlaid on top of some charming line illustrations of landmarks and attractions, with the routes of BART Express buses also indicated. It’s all very simple – the illustration looks like it’s been done with some coloured fine felt-tip pens – but it’s well drafted and quite effective, creating a fun little map to mark BART’s first decade.

If I have one minor complaint, it’s that the hand-lettered station names are quite hard to read, becoming lost in the busy illustrated background. However, as the map is really meant to be decorative, I hardly think this really matters much.

The other side of the poster folds up into two sheets filled with “BART facts”. See a high-res scan here.

Source: David Rumsey Map Collection