Wow. Just wow. These amazing transit maps of early 20th Century Berlin are just a few samples of the maps that can be found at the BerlinerVerkehr website – an absolute treasure trove that transit geeks like me can easily lose hours to. Five stars for this collection, obviously! All of these maps are of interest, but there’s a few things that really stand out: The “Hoch-und Untergrundbahn” logo used on the 1914 and 1918 […]
It’s been a while since Transit Maps featured an historical map, so here’s one from my city of Portland, Oregon. This charming map was produced by the Portland Traction Company in 1943: check out their nifty monogram in the photo set. While it’s labelled as a “trolley map” of Portland, it actually marks a point in time where streetcars and trolley buses were being replaced with cheaper to operate buses, and transit as a whole […]
This is something you just have to look at: an amazing animated timeline of the Boston MBTA Subway over at Andrew Lynch’s Vanshnookenraggen blog (check out his future MBTA maps while you’re there). To my mind, this work is far superior to the animated history of the New York Subway map that was floating around the interwebs a little while back: it’s clearly dated on the map, it’s fully annotated, and even has a slide […]
I love this old wayfinding route map in the Madrid Metro. Source: Leticia Ayuso/Flickr
Further to my previous posts, here’s a couple more maps from East and West Berlin, this time from 1984. Both are much better-designed than the examples shown earlier, and West Berlin has taken on the “U-number” line names that we know so well today. No further comments as the basic principles still hold true for each map – presented for comparison and completeness only.
As a direct contrast to my previous post, here’s the East Berlin perspective of transit in that divided city. Notice anything? West Berlin has almost been entirely excised from the map: a small, empty, featureless area totally encircled by extensive East German rail lines as well as the Berlin Wall: here referred to as the “state border”. A powerful statement of East German superiority if there ever was one. Have we been there? Yes. What […]
Berlin’s troubled post-World War II history led to a fascinating dual history for transit in that city, divided into East and West sectors. This West Berlin U-Bahn map from 1977 – at the height of the Cold War – shows that division in a stark, but also curiously understated fashion. The infamous Berlin Wall that completely divided the city is prosaically referred to as a Sektorengrenze, or “sector boundary”. All U-Bahn lines are still shown, […]
A photo from our good friend, Matt’ Johnson, showing a very early system map (circa 1974 to 1979) for the MARTA commuter rail system in Atlanta. Compare to the current map here. Click on the source link at the bottom of the post to read Matt’s comprehensive notes over on Flickr. I’ll just note that I really like the clean, uncluttered design; especially the subtle grey background with the underlying and unlabelled road network reversed […]
Some guy installed the London Underground in his bathroom. Badass. Source: amanda-lwin/Tumblr
Uncovered at Orient Heights station, photo from 2009. Note “Washington” station instead of Downtown Crossing, the entirely different alignment of the Orange Line to Forest Hills, no Red Line extension to Quincy and Braintree (and it ends at Harvard in the other direction). The “A” Green Line to Watertown is still in service, and the “E” goes all the way to Arborway. Love the elegant simplicity to this, and the lovely crimson red used for […]
