All posts tagged: Manhattan

Submission – Historical Map: BMT Nassau Street Line by Renzo Picasso, c.1930 (?)

June 29, 2016
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Submitted by Casira Copes, who says: This is an image done by Renzo Picasso, the late Italian engineer and architect. He specialized in urban design and transit drawings, which I thought might be interesting for your blog! I’m currently working at the Archivio Renzo Picasso in Genoa, Italy where our goal is to expose his work to more people. He was not very well-known in his lifetime, but his drawings are pretty fascinating! He did […]

Historical Map: “Avenue of the Americas” Subway Map, 1974

February 19, 2016
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Taken from a rather breathless prospectus promoting the Avenue of the Americas (also known as plain old Sixth Avenue, New York) as the economic and cultural epicentre of pretty much the entire universe. Produced by the Avenue of the Americas Association, and entitled simply “From humble beginnings to architectural and commercial greatness – the saga of the Avenue of the Americas: New York’s prestige address and one of the great thoroughfares of the world”, the […]

Historical Map: Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, c. 1950-1953

May 28, 2015
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A great old map promoting the use of the H&M tubes (now known as PATH) for rapid access to Manhattan and beyond (Ebbets Field, Coney Island!).  Although undated at the original source of the map, it’s pretty easy to narrow it down to sometime between 1950 and 1953 due to the presence of the 3rd Avenue Elevated in Manhattan. As shown, it no longer goes to South Ferry (closed 1950), but still continues to City […]

ReMap: Real-Time NY Subway Map Information

March 21, 2015
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A short intro video for ReMap: a dynamic, interactive map with the ability to distribute and express real-time New York Subway information, which looks very promising indeed. Manhattan only at the moment, it seems (gotta appeal to the tourists!) but the mapping style is very nice (a bit of Vignelli, a bit of KickMap). I particularly like that the length of transfer walks is indicated proportionately on the map. The use of Bluetooth to push […]

Historical Map: Surface Car Lines of Manhattan Island, August 13, 1915

January 16, 2015
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Via the now inactive nyplmaps Tumblr: Map showing surface car lines of Manhattan Island, August 13, 1915. This 61 x 185 cm color map with an approximate scale of 1:12,500 shows the streetcar lines operated by NY Railways, the Third Avenue System and the Second Avenue Railroad Co. that once roamed the Isle of Manhattan.  I’ll reblog just about anything transit-related from the New York Public Library’s map collection, but this is even more special than […]

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

January 3, 2014
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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 […]

Historical Map: New York Metropolitan Transit Authority 1968 Plan for Rail Improvement and Transit Expansion

July 15, 2013
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Courtesy of the new and already indispensable hyperrealcartography Tumblr, here’s a simply stunning set of New York transit planning maps from the late 60s. In this modern age of computer-aided map design, a lot of time can be spent trying to digitally replicate this watercolour look, but it’s hard to beat the real thing (although Stamen’s lovely map tiles do a pretty good job!). The north pointer – successfully and cleverly integrating the then-brand-new MTA […]

Historical Map: New York City Transit System Morning Peak Flow, 1954

July 11, 2013
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A beautiful old map showing scheduled morning peak service (both actual service and absolute maximum capacity) into Manhattan below 60th Street. The thicker the lines, the greater the service – much like modern service frequency maps! Being 1954, the subway is still divided into its three separately run divisions: BMT (Yellow), IRT (Blue) and IND (Red). Source: Ward Maps’ Facebook Page