All posts tagged: mail

Historical Map: Pneumatic Mail Tube Network, Paris, 1967

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Historical Maps

Paris’ other underground transportation system. This is a fantastic and detailed map of the once-extensive network of pneumatic tubes used for whisking messages, post and telegrams from one side of the city to the other. Established in 1866, the system remained in use until 1984, when it was finally supplanted by “modern” technology like fax and telex machines. At the system’s apogee, there were over 460 kilometres (285 miles) of tubes running beneath the city. Notable […]

Historical Map: New York City’s Pneumatic Tube Mail System

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Historical Maps

Not a transit map in the usual sense of carrying passengers, this map instead depicts a network that conveyed mail at speeds of up to 35mph under the streets of New York from 1897 to 1953 (barring a small gap during World War I when it was shut down to conserve funds for the war effort). This map probably shows the system at its height pre-WWI, with over 27 miles of tube. Even then, the […]