All posts tagged: USA

Historical Map: Street Railways, City of Washington, D.C., 1891

September 24, 2013
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As the first segment of the new DC Streetcar on H Street and Benning Road nears completion, here’s a look back at what existed a long, long time ago. As can be seen at this time, no fewer than ten streetcar companies operated in the District. By 1895, Congress authorised consolidation of the companies and the larger, more successful systems bought out the smaller ones. The map itself is very handsome, with the distinctive grid of […]

Updated: Aerial Photo Transit Map of Portland, Oregon – Now with Bus Routes!

September 23, 2013
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Taylor Gibson’s aerial photo map of Portland’s rail and streetcar routes is one of the most popular posts ever on Transit Maps, so I thought I’d pass on this update to it, which now shows the bus network as well. The colours used match the official TriMet system map, although Taylor hasn’t shown peak hour-only services like the 51 up through Council Crest. What this view really shows to effect is Portland’s grid-like bus network, […]

Historical Map: Original 1967 Boston MBTA “Spider” Map with 1980s Additions

September 18, 2013
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What we have here is a 100-percent original 1967 Boston MBTA “spider map” as designed by Cambridge 7 Associates, but with some very unofficial later additions. The minor additions are the lengthening of two names on the Red Line to later versions – “Kendall” becomes “Kendall/MIT” and “Charles” is now “Charles/MGH”. No problems there. The real eye-opener is the addition of the Red Line extension past Harvard to Alewife. The sticker used has discoloured relative […]

Historical Map: Washington, DC Metro Map, 1981

September 17, 2013
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Enough of all this talk about the new DC Metro map; here’s another old one for you – and this one’s a bit of an oddity. An inspection of the southern leg of the Green Line shows that the terminus was then planned to be at Rosecroft, not Branch Avenue. The preceding station shown, St. Barnabas Road, was also never constructed The photos of the map were sent to me by Mark Greenwald, who says […]

Historical Map: Aerial View of the Puget Sound Area, Washington, c. 1940

September 17, 2013
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An old postcard showing a colorised aerial photo of Seattle and the Puget Sound. Points of interest and the ferry routes of the era (pre-Washington State Ferries, which only commenced service in 1951) have then been added to the image. It’s these ferry routes which allow us to date this charming postcard to somewhere between 1935 and 1942. The little Fletcher Bay to Brownsville ferry route (centre left on the photo) only operated between 1924 […]

Submission: Cross-Stitched New York Subway Map

September 10, 2013
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Submitted by Sabina Wolfson, who says: The cross-stitched “T” map you mentioned reminded me that I have been meaning to submit this for awhile. Cross-sittched NYC subway map from 2010. I took a map and made it into an x-stitch pattern and then my Aunt stitched it for me. Transit Maps says: Wow! The 45-degree angularity of most transit maps means that they work well with this type of “pixel-based” art, but Sabina must have […]

Behind the Scenes: Evolution of the Chicago CTA Rail Map from 1996-2006 and Beyond

September 6, 2013
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This material was sent to me via email by Dennis McClendon, who runs Chicago CartoGraphics, a design firm in the Windy City that specialises in maps and information graphics. His email – which outlines his role in the development of the Chicago “L” map as used in the CTA system map brochure (the first link on this page) – is so fascinating that I’m basically reproducing it in its entirety below. In effect, Dennis is Transit […]

Submission – Aerial Transit Map of Salt Lake City, Utah

August 30, 2013
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Submitted by Aaron Sebright, who says: After seeing the aerial maps of the New York City Subway system and Portland’s Rail system, I decided to try it out on my home city of Salt Lake City! Granted that at the end of the year, it will have three light rail lines, one street car line and one commuter rail line it is even simpler than Portland’s at this scale. (Not pictured in this photo is […]