Notes on
New York Subway Maps

Before the integration of the subway network in June 1940, no single body had responsibility for the whole network, and so there were no official maps of the system as a whole. Early maps fall into three categories:

• Official
  Maps issued by the three individual subway companies. (At least, the private companies BMT and IRT issued their own-brand maps. As for the municipal IND, I've not seen an official publication of the system map, but only IND maps published by other companies in a distinctive style that I assume originates in the IND offices.)
• Promotional
  Promotional literature that includes a subway map. Judging from the samples I've seen, the businesses that issued subway maps were financial institutions (mostly savings banks) and hotels. One notable exception was the New York Telephone Company. Some commissioned their own maps, others relied on established map companies, principally Hagstrom, Van Nostrand, and Ohman. Several companies reissued updated map leaflets each year.
• Commercial
  Commercial maps: produced and sold as maps, rather than distributed free as advertisements. As far as I know, Hagstrom was the only company that specifically marketed a subway map, the earliest of which I've seen is from early 1940 (that is, before unification). Others, such as "Norman's Simplified Map" and Alexander Gross's "Geographer's Map" included a subway map on the sheet. Before 1940, some publishers sold guide booklets that included the set of three subway maps (IRT, BMT, IND). Also, several companies also sold street maps which had the subway marked in, but were not subway maps as such.

In the 1950s, the promotional maps seem to peter out. The commercial maps continue as a small niche, but the official map of the unified subway seems to dominate. I do not know how soon after June 1940 the Board of Transportation produced the first official map of the unified network: the earliest dated map I know of is 1948, but I have another, undated specimen from a few years earlier. Paul Matus has kindly dated this to mid-1944 to end-1945. During the 1940s and early 1950s, the 'official' map was just a rebadged Hagstrom map. That is to say, the Board of Transportation purchased copies of Hagstrom's own map of the subway, and had printed on it text that was specific to the Board of Transportation. At first, that was just text in the cartouche on the map itself; later they had text on the back of the map, including a front cover for the folded map. After the NYC Transit Authority was formed, they commissioned their own map in 1956: that map was design by George Salomon of Parsons & Nathan, and first issued by the NYCTA in 1958.

We can get only a very rough picture of the life-cycle of the promotional subway map from the individual specimens that turn up on eBay. The sampling is massively skewed in favour of more recent maps, because the older ones get lost or destroyed. Nevertheless, we do get a clearer picture of the demise of the promotional maps in the early sixties, a few years after NYCTA started producing its own maps in 1958. This is particularly vivid in the three longest series that I have found so far, issued by the Seamens' Bank, the Union Dime Savings Bank, and the New York Telephone Company. The following table shows the years for which I know that promotional maps exist.

Seamens' Bank	c.28,31,36?,c.37,41,43,46,49,57,59,60,62,64,65
Union Dime Savings Bank	40,48,54,55,57,58,61
New York Telephone Company	xx,53,pre-55,55,59,60,64
Chemical Bank	64,6x
South Brooklyn Savings Bank (rebadged Hagstrom)	pre-55
New York Savings Bank	39
Franklin Savings Bank	31,37
YMCA	5x
Broadway Central Hotel	c.10
Hotel Bristol	22,23
Hotel Westminster	25
Hotel Stanford	56
Knott Hotels	c.31, c.60

This raises the question of why it took so long for the official maps to oust the promotional maps. Let us consider some speculations. One possibility is that passengers had to pay for the official maps, whilst the promotional maps were free. This is unlikely. I have seen no price tags on the official maps, and according to contributors to SubTalk, the official maps have always been free to members of the public. Another possibility has to do with the paradox that Hagstrom, a private company, was simultaneously marketing its own-brand subway map at 25 cents a map, whilst also supplying its map for free distribution in the form of promotional leaflets for various sponsors -- among them being the Board of Transportation and later the NYCTA. Obviously Hagstrom would be paid for these maps by the sponsoring body. Now, BoT was never a cash-rich company, so my speculation is that it simply did not buy enough rebadged Hagstrom maps to meet the passengers' demands. Only when it created its own map in 1958, which it could print much more cheaply than it could buy Hagstrom's, could it then afford to distribute copies to as many passengers as wanted them. This hypothesis is also consistent with the curious scarcity of pre-1958 official subway maps: on eBay, you see more official subway maps from 1958 than for the whole period 1940 to 1957.

This puts into perspective the late arrival of diagrammatic maps in New York. George Salomon's map of 1958 was the result of a two-year contract. Obviously none of the promotional companies that were publishing subway maps -- banks, hotels, etc -- would have considered it worth while to invest in the design of a new map. Which leaves Hagstrom as the only player with the resources and long-term interest to redesign the subway map. But they already dominated the market with a high-quality map and had no serious rivals. Only the people who ran the subways would be in a position to do it. But why wait fifteen years from the unification of the subways before embarking on the project? The system was initially operated from 1940 by the municipal authority of New York, and it was only in 1953 that an autonomous body, the Transport Authority, was created to take over, and it must have been about 1955 that they took the decision to create a new subway map. Unification itself was a monumental undertaking, spanning twenty years of legal, fiscal, and administrative preparation; so one possibility is that the BoT was just too busy to worry about creating an improved map. Another possibility was that they simply lacked the vision for radical change. In his unpublished writings, Salomon lamented the difficulty of navigation, and envisaged a comprehensive solution. Maybe nobody in BoT thought about it that much.

The creation of a diagrammatic map of the subway, which largely followed the 'visual language' (as Salomon put it) of Henry Beck's London Underground map, thus seems a natural progression that happened as soon as it could. The next major change in the subway map occurred shortly after the New York City Transit Authority was superseded by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the MTA.

Subsequent events, however were unexpected. After ten years' service, Salomon's functional map was distorted with the inclusion of new line codes; and four years later it was replaced completely in 1972 by a supposedly aesthetic new diagram that had been devised by the designer Massimo Vignelli. Whereas Salomon was a typographer, and Beck had been a technical draughtsman, Vignelli was a general designer, noted for his modernist designs of furniture and kitchenware. He was commissioned to redesign the MTA's signage as well as its maps. The map he produced is highly stylised and simplified in relation to other maps of the New York subway. In popular mythology, people mistakenly recall Vignelli's design as being the first diagrammatic map of the subway, and assume it was inspired by the British map. Moreover, people attribute the design's rejection by the subway's passengers to those supposed facts. In 1979, Vignelli's design was replaced with Michael Hertz's map: a new utilitarian design, but one that went back to geography rather than a Beckian diagram.

Line identification

In the colour maps issued by Hagstrom Company, Inc. from the 1940s, lines were given three basic colours:

• red = IND lines
• blue = IRT lines
• yellow = BMT lines
• thin black = elevated lines

In George Salomon's new diagrammatic design for the NYCTA (the successor to the BoT) in 1958, we find a new colour key:

• red = IND lines
• black= IRT lines
• green = BMT lines
• thin black = elevated lines

In the redesign of 1967, Salomon's basic geometry of the map is retained, but the line differentiation is revolutionised. There are now eight different colours, and lines are identified by a code (comprised a numeric digit, a letter, or two letters). Given that each line is identified by its code (except for the shuttle services), the line colouring is redundant for the purpose of identification. The colours do, however, help the map reader to trace the lines as they pass through complex junctions, though. The four shuttle services all have the code "SS" but have different colours. On the map, the lines no longer bear their names: instead each line has a small coloroued disc with the code in it.

In 1972, Massimo Vignelli redesigned the map and all signage. The line codes and colours were largely retained,however. And in 1979, Michael Hertz redesigned the map, bringing it back to a geograpahic, rather than geometric form. Again, the line codes were largely unchanged, although some colours were modified. Tauranac also introduced diamonds as well as circles. In 1998, Michael Hertz Associates produced a further revision, but apparently retaining the line codes and colours.

The following table is a first draft of mapping out the changing colours and codes as they appeared on the maps since 1967.

Code	Colour	1967	1972		1979
1	orange	Broadway - 7th Ave Loc	Broadway Loc		red	Broadway - 7 Ave Loc
2	red	7th Ave - Bronx Exp	7th Ave Exp (all times)		7th Ave Exp
3	cyan	7th Ave - Lenox Exp	7th Ave Exp (selected times)		red	7th Ave Exp and Shuttle
4	purple	Lexington - Jerome Ave Exp	Lexington Ave Exp		green	Lexington Ave Exp
5	black	Lexington Ave Exp	Lexington Ave Exp		green	Circle: Lexington Ave Exp and Shuttle Diamond: Lexington Ave Exp and Lexington Ave Exp - Bronx Thru Exp
6	yellow	Pelham Exp	Pelham Exp		green	Diamond: Lexington Ave Loc - Pelham Exp
		Lexington Avenue - Pelham Loc	Lexington Ave Loc		green	Lexington Ave Loc
7	orange	Times Square - Flushing Exp/Loc	Times Square - Flushing Exp/Loc		purple	Flushing Circle:Exp Diamond: Loc
8	cyan	Third Avenue Loc	Third Avenue Loc		-
A	blue	8th Avenue Exp	8th Avenue Exp		8th Avenue Exp and Rockaway Shuttle
B	black	Ave of Americas - West End Exp	Ave of Americas Exp		orange	Ave of Americas Circle:Loc and Shuttle Diamond:Exp
D	orange	Ave of Americas - Brighton Exp	Ave of Americas Exp		Ave of Americas Exp
E	cyan	8th Ave - Queens Exp	8th Ave Exp		-
F	purple	Ave of Americas - Queens - Brooklyn Line	Ave of Americas Exp		orange	Ave of Americas Loc
M	cyan	Myrtle Ave - Chambers St Line	Myrtle Ave Exp		brown	Nassau St Loc and Shuttle
N	yellow	Broadway Sea Beach Exp	Broadway Exp		Circle: Broadway Exp and Shuttle Diamond: Loc
AA	purple	8th Ave Loc	8th Ave Loc		blue	8th Ave Loc
CC	green	8th Ave - Bronx Loc	8th Ave Loc		blue	Rockaway Shuttle
EE	orange	Queens - Broadway Loc	Broadway Loc		-
GG	green	Brooklyn - Queens Loc	Brooklyn - Queens Crosstown Loc		Brooklyn - Queens Crosstown
HH	red	Far Rockaway	-		-
JJ	orange	Jamaica Loc	-		-
KK	cyan	-	Ave of the Americas Broadway (Brooklyn) Line		-
LL	black	14 St - Canarsie Line	14 St Loc		grey	14 St - Canarsie Loc
QB	red	Broadway Brighton Loc	Broadway Exp		yellow	Broadway Exp
QJ	black	Brighton-Jamaica Line	Broadway Exp		-
RJ	red	4 Ave - Jamaica Line	-		-
RR	green	Broadway/4 Ave Loc	Broadway Loc		yellow	Broadway Loc
MJ	purple	Myrtle Ave Line	-		-
NX	cyan	Broadway Exp	-		-
TT	cyan	West End Loc	-		-
SS	black	145 St Shuttle	-		-
	green	Dyre Ave Shuttle	-		-
	blue	Bowling Green - S. Ferry Shuttle	green	Bowling Green / S. Ferry Shuttle	-
	cyan	42 St Shuttle	green	Times Squ / Grand Central Shuttle	black "S"	42 St Shuttle
	yellow	Franklyn Shuttle	green	Frankin Ave Shuttle	black "S"	Franklin Ave Shuttle
	orange	Culver Shuttle	green	Culver Shuttle	-

Re-badged Hagstrom maps

Hagstrom did the cartographic design and printing for the subway maps issued by the government bodies (Board of Transportation, later NYCTA) until 1957. It seems that Hagstrom supplied the sheets with just the map printed: the title cartouche was blank and the reverse side of the sheet was blank. Sheets of this kind were sold to other map issuers, besides the Board of Transportation.

The evidence for this is mostly circumstantial:

• The existence of identical Hagstrom maps issued by other companies, with their own text in the cartouche and on the back.
• Late over-printing of information on the map key, to match typeset information in the text panels.
• The existence of Hagstrom maps, printed on one side, with a blank cartouche.

So, we have a picture of the Hagstrom company supply large boxes of map sheets, printed on only one side, and with blank title cartouches, to the office of the Board of Transportation, and the Board then feeding those sheets though their printing presses to add their text.

circa 1944

Dating: This specimen is undated, so we have to date it by its contents. The map shows the Dyre Avenue line (which opened 15th May 1941); but it does not show Broadway - E.NY (which opened 30th December 1946). So, on the basis of subway line openings, the map is assigned to the period mid-1941 to end-1946, median 1944. (The map cites the Hagstrom office's address as 20 Vesey Street. But it is known that Hagstrom were still at that address as late as August 1947, so that information does not help us date the map.)

Paul Matus sent me the following, using information on the elevated lines to date it: "The lower part of the 2nd Avenue el is not there, so it is later than June 1942. The Myrtle Avenue el is cut back to Bridge Street, so it is later than 5 March 1944. It may be very soon after that, because they didn't update the name of the station to 'Bridge/Jay'. City Hall on the IRT is still shown as a station, and it closed 12/31/45. So the map shows service before that date. So we have narrowed the map down to mid-1944 to end-1945."

Features: The set of stations that have free transfers changes between successive editions, so I shall list here the six that have free transfers shown on this edition. (Each free transfer is show in a spacious black-outline box, with "FREE TRANSFER" in red, and hence has a high visual prominence.)

Manhattan (going North)
Grand Central: IRT (Lexington Avenue Line and Astoria Line) & 3rd Avenue Elevated.
155 Street and 8th Avenue: IND (8th Avenue Line) & Elevated.
Brooklyn
Rockaway Parkway: BMT & Trolley.
Rockaway Avenue: IND (Fulton Line) & Elevated.
Franklin Avenue: BMT & IND.
Bronx
East 180 Street: IRT (Dyre Avenue Line & White Plains Road Line).

Between subway stations that have free transfers there is drawn a thick black line, representing the walkway. This line is thicker than that used for the elevated lines, which in turn is thicker than the line used to denote certain streets between selected stations. Only the elevated lines are shown in the key.

c. 1947

Changes: This map has a major change, in the form of coloured symbols for transfers to surface lines.

Transfers: This edition introduces coloured rings to mark stations where passengers can transfer from the subway and elevated lines to surface lines (i.e. buses and trolleys). The basic symbols for stations remains the same, but they are now surround by coloured rings: yellow for transfers to privately owned lines, blue for transfers to publicly owned lines. These symbols were short-lived and had been abandoned by August 1952. The following is a scan of the complete key on the November 1948 edition (as I don't have the c. 1947 edition or the October 1948 edition), but John Rofrano assures me that these symbols are used in the c. 1947 edition.

The large box that contains the key has expanded in width and height (to accommodate the key for the coloured discs described above). The top right-hand corner of that box now nestles against Governors Island, and consequently the text "GOVERNORS ISLAND" below the island has been replaced by "GOVERNORS IS.", starting to the left of the island.

1948, November

Other changes (between the c. 1944 and November 1948 editions):

• The Free Transfer boxes now have both a red border and red text, where previously they had red text in black boxes.
• The number of stations that have free transfers has increased from 7 to 22. (See list below.) Each one has the small red box saying "FREE TRANSFER". (The number of Free Transfer boxes has increased from 6 to 21, because two stations (155 St/8th Av and 151 St/River Av share the same Free Transfer box.) Each of these new Free Transfer station groups has, of course, a red "FREE TRANSFER" box added to the map.
• In some cases, the addition of the box has necessitated the movement of nearby graphical items, as follows.
  • At 25 Street, the pier on the North River has lost its designation "25" to make room for the Free Transfer box for the City Hall interchange complex.
  • The "5th Av" road marking north of 28th Street has lost its "Av" to make way for the Free Transfer box for the interchange between the IND and the BMT at 33rd Street and 5th Avenue.
  • The Lincoln Tunnel has moved its name west, and had has been truncated at its eastern terminal, to make room for the Free Transfer box for the interchange at Times Square.
  • At 191 Street, the text "St.Nicholas" has moved North to make room for the Free Transfer box for the interchange between the IND and the IRT at 168 Street.
  • "Gates Ave" has moved its "Ave" south to make room for the Free Transfer box for the interchange at Broadway Junction.
• Station groups that offer free transfers between different subway lines (as opposed to transfers between subway lines and trolley or elevated lines) have also had a thick black line added to indicated the pedestrian walkway. In some cases, e.g. Fulton Street, this black connecting line is quite long.
• The text "69 St. Ferry | to Staten Island" has changed to "69 St. Ferry | to St. George | Staten Island"

Map: Overprinting: The printed fare for transfer from privately-owned bus or trolley to subway or elevated line has been deleted and 5¢ printed alongside.

It is interesting that ths same piece of information (i.e. the 5¢ transfer fare) is handled differently on the map and the text sides: in the text panel, it is incorporated into the typeset material; on the map side, it is overprinted. This would be consistent with a multi-stage printing process. First, the Board of Transportation outsourced the more specialised cartographic printing to Hagstrom, and did the text printing in-house. Second, the Board printed the map-side text (the title cartouche), and then printed the panels of text on the back.

I would expect the whole of the key to have been printed by Hagstrom, because it incorporates the graphic symbols. Later, as each successive edition was required, the text panels would be printed on the back with up-to-date information. So, any late changes could easily be made by the Board in the text panels, but cannot be made to the map side -- except by the crude method of overprinting.

1948, December 1st

Changes: With only three days separating this edition from its predecessor on November 28th, we would expect little change. In the map itself, I can see no changes, and the map has the same Hagstrom code, "X-SM" as in November. In the Service Information panels on the reverse of the map, we find the following alterations: service C is deleted, and parts of services D and F are swapped; and there is a fare increase. The changes are detailed as follows:

Front cover:	Only the date is changed.
RATES of FARE	The fare for transferring from privately-operated surface lines (i.e. buses and trolleys) to non-surface lines (i.e. subway and elevated) and has been increased from 5 ¢ to 6¢. The latter seems to be in a slightly different font, and there are some tiny black dots around the "6", suggesting that it was inserted over a scratched-out "5".
NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT SYSTEM:	2 x information panels: No change.
GENERAL POINTS OF INTEREST	2 x information panels: No change.
Service Information:	1st Panel	Service Information IND Division:
		Service A (Washington Heights Express): "207th STREET" changed to "207th Street", which is odd because this makes the orthography inconsistent with the rest of the tables.
		Service C (Bronx Concourse Express): deleted.
		Service D (Bronx Concourse Express): endpoint changed from "HUDSON TERM." to "CHURCH AVE.", and route changed from "6th Avenue" to "6th Avenue - Houston St.". (cf Service F.)
		Service F (Queens - Manhattan Express): endpoint changed from "CHURCH AVE." to "HUDSON TERM.", and route changed from "6th Avenue - Houston St." to "6th Avenue". (cf Service D.)
		Note that Services D and F have precisely opposite changes.
	2nd Panel	Service Information IRT Division:
		No change.
	3rd Panel	Service Information BMT Division:
		Brighton Beach Local: hyphen deleted from "57th St.-QUEENS PLAZA".

1949, July 1st

This edition has some small changes in the map (in relation to the edition of December 1948), mostly the addition waterside piers.

: :

Changes to the map
Piers	On the Manhattan bank of North River, more of the piers are shown. In the early 1940s, piers nos. 3, 25, 50, and 80 were drawn in. At first, pier no. 3 was not numbered, to make room for "Bowling Green". By October 1948, the numbering for no. 25 was also omitted, to make room for a "FREE TRANSFER" box. Now, the numbers 3 and 25 have been reinstated, albeit displaced slightly. Also, twelve additional piers have been drawn in and numbered: nos. 9, 15, 20, 25, 40, 46, 56, 60, 65, 68, 88, and 96. These piers have been drawn in as black lines on top of the blue water of North River, and not filled white as the old piers nos 3, 25, 50, and 80 were. A different font has been used for the fourteen pier numbers that have been added in this edition.
	Likewise, in the Brooklyn shore of the narrows, four piers (nos. 1, 4, 6, 8) have been added. Like the new ones on the North River, these are drawn as black lines on the blue water, with the new font.
	The legend "US Army Base" has been added opposite piers 2 and 4 in Brooklyn.
	The only other content change on the map is that 58th Street is marked on in Brooklyn, alongside the US Army Base.
	Edition code change from "X-SM" to "A-SC".
Changes to the text panels
Front cover:	Only the date is changed.
RATES of FARE	The price of a transfer from a privately operated surface line has gone back down to 5 cents. Interestingly, the "5¢" has returned to the original font.
NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT SYSTEM:	2 x information panels: No change.
GENERAL POINTS OF INTEREST	2 x information panels: have been revised. Because of these additions -- such of which are several lines long -- the spacing between lines has been reduced throughout this table.
	A dash has been inserted on the Bronx Zoo line, between "IRT" and "180th St.-Bronx Park", making this row consistent in format with the others in the table.
	The words "(Medieval Art)" have been added after "Cloisters".
	"Planetarium" has been renamed "Hayden Planetarium" and hence moved up in the alphabetically ordered list.
	Six new rows have been added: Grant's Tomb, Historical Society, International Airport (Idlewild), La Guardia Airport, Prospect Park, and Rockefeller Center.
Service Information:	1st Panel	Service Information IND Division Note that Services D and F have precisely opposite changes, and that these three changes precisely reverse those observed earlier from the November to the December 1948 editions.
		Service C (Bronx Concourse Express): reinstated.
		Service D (Bronx Concourse Express): endpoint changed back from "CHURCH AVE." to "HUDSON TERM.", and route changed back from "6th Avenue - Houston St." to "6th Avenue". (cf Service F.)
		Service F (Queens - Manhattan Express): endpoint changed back from "HUDSON TERM." to "CHURCH AVE.", and route changed from "6th Avenue" to "6th Avenue - Houston St.". (cf Service D.)
	2nd Panel	Service Information IRT Division
		No change.
	3rd Panel	Service Information BMT Division:
		Brighton Beach Local: hyphen reinstated from "57th St.-QUEENS PLAZA". This reverses the change made from November too December 1948.

1952, August 15th

Changes (in relation to the edition 1st July 1949) are listed below. The biggest change if the omission of information about transfers to surface lines: the coloured transfer symbols have been dropped from the map, and the paragraphs about transfer fares have been dropped from the text panels.

We can speculate why the transfer information was dropped. Was the transfer fares changing too rapidly? No, they hardly changed at all over the previous decade. Was they becomingh too complex? If so, that's more reason for including it! Did all the transfers become free? No, because there are references to specific free transfers, implying others were paid for. My guess is that it was political. Subway usage was losing out to surface lines, so the managers wanted to encourage the use of the subway at the expense of the surface lines. Interestingly, the only price information given for surface lines is the increased basic fare, which is now one dime -- the same as the subway fare. The message is: buses and trolleys are no longer cheaper than rapid transit lines. Also new in this edition is a table for computing the avenue and street intersection of a given address. The inclusion of this table is designed to make the subway map more useful, as the passenger can more readily determined which stop to alight at. This is designed to remedy a disadvantage of subways vis-a-vis surface lines: a passenger on a bus or trolley can look out of the window and see where she is, but a subway passenger cannot.

:

Changes to the map
Transfer stations	The coloured discs for transfers have been dropped, from the map and from the key.
	The key box has not, however shrunk back to the size it had before the discs were introduced in the late 1940s. Instead, there is now a large gap at the bottom of the key panel where the key to the coloured discs used to be.
	To fill up part of that gap, the text has been moved from its former positio in the centre of the bottom margin into the key box: "For legibility, all Streets and St. have been omitted. Example: 42nd Street Station shown as 42 only."
Tunnels	There is a change at the terminal of the Lincoln Tunnel. In the early 1940s,this was shown as a pair of broken lines leading almost up to 8th Avenue IND Line. Those broken lines had been truncated by October 1948, to make way for the red box bearing the legend "Free Transfer". The red box has now been moved south, so that it truncates only the lower of the two broken lines. The upper line continues right up to 8th Avenue, where it ends with a small black rectangle marked "BUS TERMINAL".
	The Brooklyn Battery tunnel has been added in.
Disappearing els	The 3rd Avenue Elevated has disappeared south of Chatham Square, down to its old terminus of South Ferry. Also, the spur from Chatham Square to City Hall has vanished. (Note, however, that the spur to City Hall, will reappear by the edition of 1st September 1953.)
	The omission of the elevated railroad south of Chatham Square creates a space into which some of the nearby text can move: "Whitehall" moves further inland; "Brooklyn Br." moves much closer and shortens its formerly curved arrow; "Chambers" and "Chatham Sq" each move closer to their respective stations and no longer need an their arrows (and, in fact, "Chatham Sq" is restored to the same size font as the other text); "City Hall" (the label for the elevated railroad station) is now omitted along with the two other elevated stations "Franklin Sq", "Hanover Sq", and the arrow from "South Ferry" has gone (while the text "South Ferry" remains as a subway station name).
	The extensive elevated railroad from Myrtle Avenue up to 111st Street on Jamaica Avenue has gone, along with the spur from Eastern Parkway to Hinsdale. Also, Grand Avenue station on the Myrtle Avenue el has gone.
	There are corresponding adjustments of textual labels around the space vacated by the lost railroad. The labels for some, but not all of the lost stations have gone. (Some labels served for elevated stations on the now-closed Lexington Avenue line and the remaining Myrtle Avenue line.) Vanished station names are: Myrtle Avenue, Grand Avenue, DeKalb Avenue, Greene Avenue,
	The spur from Fordham Road (Fordham University) to Bronx Park has disappeared.
Avenue labels	The IND Line running north from Canal Street has been renamed from "6th Av" to "Ave. of the Americas".
	Underneath "Bay Pkwy" in Brooklyn has been added "22 Av".
Changes to the text panels
Front cover	Gone:    Subtitle: "RATES OF FARE | RATES FOR TRANSFER | BETWEEN RAPID TRANSIT | AND | SURFACE LINES | GENERAL INFORMATION" "Issued by" before Board of Transportation Address: "250 Hudson Street", etc "William O'Dwyer, Mayor" Added:    Subtitle: "VINCENT R. IMPELLITTERI | Mayor" Underneath Board of Transportation: "Sidney H. Bingham, Chairman | G. Joseph Minetti, Commissioner | James F. Dulligan, Commissioner And, of course, the date changes to August 15, 1952.
NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT SYSTEM	This pair of information panels has been revised. (These appear to be the only changes made to this panel throughout the decade from 1948.)
	1st panel, 3rd paragraph: The sentence regarding the fate of the elevated lines has been updated, from this:    All but the Third Avenue structure in Manhattan and the old Myrtle, Lexington and Fulton lines in Brooklyn have been razed since. to this:    All but the Third Avenue structure in Manhattan and the old Myrtle line in Brooklyn have been razed since.
	2nd panel, 4th paragraph: The sentence regarding the start of the IND has changed from this:    Ground was broken in April 1925 at St. Nicholas Avenue and 123rd Street." to this:    Ground was broken on March 14, 1925 at St. Nicholas Avenue and 123rd Street." It is clear that the editor has scratched out the old text, "in April" inserted the new text inserted over it, as oppposed to re-setting the text.
	2nd panel, 5th paragraph: The number of Civil Service employees has increased from 40,000 to 42,000. The number of passengers carried daily has decreased from 7,000,000 to 6,500,000. The number of miles of rapid transit routes has decreased from 241.30 to 238.87 miles. The number of miles of trolley and bus routes has increased from 530.39 to 582.30 miles.
RATES of FARE	This panel has lost the three paragraphs about transfer fares. In their place is a conversion table for calculating the street and avenue address of any given house in Manhattan. There are some minor changes to the other paragraphs, and the whole panel has been re-set in a smaller font.
	The only paragraph that now gives fare information is now the first paragraph. The fare for trips on the subway and elevated lines remains fixed at a dime. The fare for city-owned bus and trolley lines has increased from 7¢ to a dime. Omitted is the third row of the table, which used to say "Combination rapid transit and surface lines, with transfer at authorized points ... 12 ¢".
	The three paragraphs of transfer fare information, which previously occupied half of the panel, have gone. These covered the three kinds of transfer: from non-surface lines to surface lines (2¢); from city-owned surface lines to non-surface lines (5¢), from privately-owned surface lines to non-surface lines (also 5¢). Transfer fares are no longer stated anywhere on the sheet. The reason for this is unknown. The next paragraph, advises of free transfers between city-owned surfaces lines, and remains unchanged. This implies that transfers of other kinds were still charged for. No mention is made of transfers between non-surface lines, but the fact that a few free tansfers between non-surface lines are marked on the map, we may infer that such transfers are normally charged.
	In place of the three paragraphs of transfer fare information, there is a table and associated text entitled "KEY TO STREET NUMBERS IN MANHATTAN". Given an address, it enables you to compute the intersection of street and avenue that is nearest to that address.
	The three final paragraphs are largely unchanged in content although they have been re-set in the smaller font. In the penultimate paragraph has been added "and a bus division in Manhattan".
GENERAL POINTS OF INTEREST	This panel has been tidied up by bracketing together the different routes that go to a the same destination. For example, three routes were given for the Empire State Building, and these are now bracketed together for clarity. Also, dotted lines have been inserted to link the left- and right-hand columns of the table.
	There have been a number of changes of content, as follows. Assay Office Added "BMT - Whitehall". [More to follow ...]

1954, June 14th

This is not a regular passenger service map, but a special map showing the planned extensions to the subway system. It was issued as a loose insert in the 1954 Annual Report.

The map was completely redesigned for the MTA by George Salomon. This was the first diagrammatic map of the New York subway. Previous maps were geographic. The design draws on the London experience of Beck's map (from 1933) far more than Vignelli's later design.

Changes:

• First use of Transit Authority's "ta" logo.
• Overprinting: thick blue line from Times Square to the World's Fair station.

The following information is from Charlie Sokol.

The 1965 World's fair map: this map has a copyright date of 1964, not 1965.

The 1964-1965 New York World's fair was closed for the winter of 1964-1965. This map must have been issued late in 1964, after the fair closed for the winter, with the World's Fair map on the back corrected for the 1965 season of the World's Fair.

In the earlier 1964 map, in the World's fair map on the rear, there is an entry for "Belgium", whereas in the second 1964 map (for the 1965 fair season), the entry is "Belgian Village". The 1964 and 1965 editions of the Official World's Fair Guide use the same nomenclature ("Belgium" in the 1964 edition and "Belgian Village" in the 1965 edition). In addition, the late 1964 edition of the map includes two panels advertising the Chase Manhattan bank.

Source: Both of the 1964 subway maps and both the 1964 and 1965 editions of the Official New York World's Fair Guide Book are in my personal collection.)

Changes: The geometry is essentially the same as in George Salomon's design, but there is a substantial redesign of graphical symbolism. The previous design had lines coloured green, red, and black for BMT, IND, and IRT. The new design uses eight colours and introduces the thirty line-labels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, A, AA, B, CC, D, E, EE, F, GG, HH, JJ, LL, M, MJ, N, QJ, RR, TT, NX, QB, RJ, and SS. The short SS lines (Shuttle Service) occur in six colours (black, green, light blue, dark blue, yellow, orange). This is "the famous multi-colored Chrystie Street editon which had a large TA logo on the front." [Larry,Redbird333 on Subtalk, 27th November 2001.]

Changes: The cover has the new "M" logo for the new MTA instead of the giant "ta" logo. The MTA took over from the TA on 1st March 1968. Nevertheless, the map still uses the name of the TA, not the MTA.

Changes: MJ Myrtle Avenue Local deleted, as the older part of this elevated line (from Bridge-Jay Street to Broadway in Brooklyn) was closed on 3rd October 1969. (Sources: Todd Glickman & Charles Sokol.)

There were two editions issued early in 1972, possibly simultaneously. The map itself is identical for the two editions, but there are extensive differences on the other side of the sheet. The covers of the two editions were very different: one had nine circles, each with a line code in it; the other hand a zoomed-in section of the map. The following major differences exist between this pair of editions.

• The circles edition has strip lists covering most of the reverse side of the sheet. (A 'strip list' is a list of all the stations on each line, printed in black in a box filled with that line's colour.) The remaining panels of that side comprise the front cover and a list of "Places to Visit".
• In the lines edition, all of the strip lists have been omitted, and in their place is a zoomed-in view of the map for downtown Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn, part of which stretches over the front cover. The "Places to Visit" box has changed its shape but not its content.

• The list of "Places to Visit" changes shape, and has the following two textual changes:
  • The "Cathedral of St John" is expanded to "Cathedral of St John the Divine" -- but only for this edition: subsequent editions return to the shortened version of this name.
  • The two airports "J F Kennedy Intl Airport" and "La Guardia Airport" drop their grid references (D8 and D6 respectively) and do not regain them in subsequent editions.

The 3rd & 4th editions for 1972 have the same map. Comparing this pair of editions with the previous two (1st & 2nd editions for this year), we can see the following changes.

• On the map, line KK (blue) is truncated at Eastern Parkway and renamed K.
• The line QJ line is deleted, and J.
• On the cover of the circles edition, the blue KK circle is replaced with a blue K circle.

The 1st & 2nd editions have the same map, but differ in other content. Comparing this pair of maps with the previous pair (3rd & 4th 1972 editions), we can see the following changes.

• On the cover of the circles edition, circles for line B and 5 have been recoloured from grey to black.
• In the map and the key, line 8 (IRT) is omitted. This was closed on 28th April 1973. (Source: Charles Sokol.)

Changes:

• The circles edition has been dropped. From now on, we have only the lines style.
• In the map and key, line SS (the Culver Shuttle) has been omitted. The Culver Shuttle was closed on 11 May 1975, hence the map would have been issued around that time, and not 1974 as the copyright suggests. Source: Charles Sokol.

Changes:

• EE has been omitted.
• N has been extended to Continental Avenue.

Complete redesign of the map and the layout of sheet, by Michael Hertz. System changes:

• JFK Express has been added in.
• Jamaica elevated line cut back to Queens Boulevard.
• Line 5 and Bowling Green Shuttle to South Ferry have been omitted.

Note: The dates that are printed alongside the "©" symbol are as follows:

• The 1977 and 1978 editions are described as "© 1972, revised 197x".
• The 1979 edition is described as "©1979".
• Subsequent editions from 1980 to 1985 are described as "© 1979, revised 198x".
• Thereafter, each year generally had its own copyight.

Charles Sokol reports that there were two variants of the Fall 1980 map, one with lines E, B, and D on the cover (like the preceding edition of 1979), and one with lines 5 and 6 on the cover (like the following edition of 1983).

Changes:

• Line H is reinstated, replacing E/CC service to the Rockaways

Changes:

• On the front cover is added a small box containing the text "Important: Contains Manhattan Bridge Diversion Information". This replaces the similar box concerning the Brighton Line.
• On the map, near the bottom left, was a large box containing a miniature map with the title "The New York State Department of Transportation is continuing the reconstruction of the Manhattan Bridge. Consequently, there will be delays and diversions through 1988.". Below that is a list of temporary service changes. There was a similar box in the two previous editions, but I do not know whether the contents of the box were the same or different.

• The tabulated information for Line H is substantially re-worded, saving a total of two lines of text.
• The information for Line E is also re-worded, but without saving any vertical space. This change does make the text narrower in that cell, which looks as if it was intended to tie in with the next change.
• The "Manhattan" column is slightly widened, and the adjacent "Queens" column is correspondly narrowed, but only from Line G downwards. It looks as if this was intended to give a little more margin space around the "Manhattan" text for Line N. It also looks as if the "Queens" text for Line E was squeezed to fit in with the narrowing of the column; but then they decided they could not narrow this column above Line F row because the "Queens" text for Line H had meanwhile been widened. So we have odd, but imperceptible, fact that the "Manhattan" column is narrow from Line A to Line D, and wide from Line G to Line R.
• The horizontal rule below the second Line 5 has been moved down by a few millimetres, to increase the overlap with a multiple-row cell on the next line.
• The blue name "Midwood" is inserted to the North-East of station Avenue J on Line D.

On the front cover was added a small box containing the text "Important: Contains Brighton Line Diversion Information". (Explanatory note: "In 1985 they were replacing all 4 Brighton tracks 2 at a time. Trains were running skip stop and temporary platforms were set up so people could board trains on the express tracks" (source: SubTalk). Also: K appears as 8th Ave. Local (source: Todd Glickman).)

1987, May 24th

Changes:

• Includes N and R service change information.
• The "M" logo on the cover now appears on a blue disk (later known as the 'meatball').
• Box on front describes N/R terminal switch.
• Suspension of #7 and F express service.
• Split B/D routes due to Manhattan Bridge construction.

This is a special edition produced for the First New York International Festival of the Arts, 11th June to 11th July 1988. "The calendar is current as of April 1988", so I am assuming that that date applies to the subway map too. This large sheet has Hertz's subway map (© 1988) on one side, and a bus map (© 1986, ref. "45678") on the other. There is an extensive list of arts establishments in NYC. The subway map has been re-worked from the standard-issue map of 1988: the station names are in grey rather than black, and information about arts venues has been printed on in black.

1988, December

Changes:

• Opening of Parsons/Archer extensions and institution of J/Z skip-stops.
• Line C replaces line K on 8th Avenue.
• Split B/D service continues

Changes:

• New 1/9 skip-stops.
• #7 express resumes.
• Bridge reopens; R uses bridge at night.
• New free transfers at Lex/51st and Court Sq./Ely.
• M permanently on West End line.

Changes:

• Manhattan Bridge south side closed, causing line N to be routed through tunnel

Changes:

• Manhattan Bridge south side reopens.
• B replaces Q to Queensbridge evenings.
• Queens Blvd. service adjusted.
• J cut to Canal Street on weekends.
• 148 St. and 145 St. on #3 closed at night.

Changes:

• Manhattan Bridge south side closed again.
• Box on front showing accessible stations.

Format changes:

• The title has changed from black to blue, and is written in a fatter font.
• The MTA logo conversely has changed from blue to black.

• S shuttle replaces H to the Rockaways and A to Lefferts.
• A rush-hour service to Rock Park.
• R cut back to Continental.
• F runs local to 179th Street.
• Service guide by time of day instead of borough.

Front cover has: "Sponsored by Daily News & Consumer Catalog Showroom" at bottom. On the back side, there is an advertising panel for the "Daily News" and for "Consumer Catalog Showrooms" in place of the panel "It's a cultural experience". The positions of some panels are changed, so the advertising panel is on the back face of the map.(Source: Charlie Sokol.)

Changes to external appearance: the title is reduced to "Subway Map", with a black underline containing the date; the logo is changed from blue to black; and the copy line "Metropolitan Transportation Authority | New York City Transit Authority" is replaced with "MTA The Transit Authority. Going Your Way".

Changes:

• Line 7 has local service only.
• Suggestion to user use Off-Hour Boarding Area.

Changes:

• Stillwell viaduct construction cuts back N to 86^th st.
• J cut back to Chambers St. weekends.

Changes:

• Begin 4th Avenue express on N line.
• Washington Heights weekend express on A line
• Introduces MetroCard "in 69 stations".

Changes:

• MTA logo know appears as "MTA" receding into the distance against a black background.
• With copy line "New York City Transit".

Changes:

• Line 9 operates rush hours only.
• Line 3 resumes late-night shuttle.

Changes:

• Q line (Brighton Express) is restored.
• Rush-hour line 5 goes to 238th Street.

Layout changes:

• Title printed as white on a red banner.

• Manhattan Bridge CLOSED routes (Q line passes via tunnel.
• No Brighton D; Grand St. Shuttle.
• Note that N will resume Stillwell service in mid-1995.

Layout changes:

• Red banner omitted.
• "SUBWAY" in large blue letters.

• Manhattan Bridge reopens again!
• M Late night line 3 suspended again from 148-135 Street.
• 42nd Street Shuttle discontinued late at night.
• MetroCard now in 131 stations.

Changes:

• Lex/53rd Street escalator update.
• Edition ref. 54321 has "MetroCard now available at over 150 stations".
• Edition ref. 5 has "MetroCard now available at over 200 stations". Station names highlighted in yellow).

Changes: complete redesign of size and appearance, but map remains largely the same. According to eBay seller (bkmunroe), this was a pilot for the map design that was later officially issued in January 1998, and only 5000 copies were produced. Charlie Sokol acquired a specimen of this, and reports that it has no reference codes. [Scan: 85Kb.]

Changes:

• MetroCard Gold can now be used everywhere (Todd Glickman).
• On the back cover, an advertisement featuring Linda Eder in order to promote her new CD "It's Time" and her Broadway debut in "Jekyll & Hyde". Source: eBay listing by pfessas.

Changes:

• E/F/G late night service changes.
• 5th Ave. E/F station entrance closed.

Layout changes:

• Complete redesign of size and appearance, but map remains largely the same..

• New service guide format with primary, special night, and special weekend services. .
• 63rd St. service changes and Lenox Line reconstruction.

Layout changes:

• Added "MTA Bridge and Tunnel Crossings" on cover.

• B and C northern terminal swap.

Changes:

• "Franklin Avenue Shuttle, July 24, 1998 - December 1998 ... closed for reconstruction".

Changes:

• 63rd St. service changes
• Franklin Ave. Shuttle closure.
• E/F reconstruction service changes.

• Deletes Lenox Line construction.

• Superscript "TM" added in small font alongside the title "the map" on the cover.

This is a special edition of the standard map, with extra information about tennis venues. This was the second of the tennis editions.

Changes:

• Notes end of 63rd St. service changes.
• Adds Willy-B shutdown.

The front cover has the text "Complements of Bell Atlantic Yellow Pages" added at the bottom.
(Source: Charlie Sokol)

Changes:

• Willy-B shutdown continues.
• Adds Franklin Ave. Shuttle shutdown.

Changes:

• Willy-B is back.
• Franklin Ave advertised to be back on 10/3.

Changes:

• Franklin Ave. service restored.

Changes:

• B and C lines northern terminal swap and removal of closed LIRR stations.
• Wassaic extension of Metro-North opens in July.

Changes:

• Adds Wassaic extension of Metro-North

Changes:

• Special J Weekend Service deleted.
• Additional accessible stations.

Changes:

• Adds 63rd Street Connector detour information.

This is a special edition of the standard map, with extra information about tennis venues. The cover has the standard title logo, "the map", with the words "official New York City", "tennis", and "subway" interspersed.

2001, July

Todd Glickman: Incorporates Manny-B flip from North to South and resultant route changes; includes error of "V" at Roosevelt Avenue

2001, September 17th, grey-tone

On 11th September, operatives of Al Qa-eda flew two civilian airliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, murdering approximately three thousand civilians, and destroying the entire WTC and the associated subway infrastructure.

When the towers collapsed, the tunnel was made unusable south of Chambers. After the attack, Line 1 replaced Line 3 in for travellers between Manhattan and Brooklyn: Line 1 couldn't terminate anywhere else, so they diverted it to New Lots in Brooklyn. Line 3, however stopped at 14th Street. Line 2 was made local.

On the first Monday after the WTC attack, MTA issued temporary subway maps to workers returning to Manhattan. This was a single-sided, small sheet, printed in grey tones. The main change of content is, of course, the loss of the World Trade Center stations and lines that passed through them. Later that day, a similar colour map was issued. I am told that black-and-white photocopies of the colour map were also circulated. Todd Glickman:

• 2 & 3 local and 1 express on West Side IRT; many other lower Manhattan diversions;
• no West Side IRT below Franklin St.
• no Broadway BMT below Canal St;
• no 8th Ave. IND below Canal St.;
• Wall St. closed on East Side IRT;
• N and R to Brooklyn replaced by M and J respectively via Nassau Loop;
• W local only in Queens;
• 9 and Z skip-stop service suspended.

This was a later version of the first, grey-tone map. Franklin Street reopened. 2001, September 17th, small grey-tone sheet.

Single-sided, small sheet. The specimen that I have has identical contents to the colour map. The grainy quality of the grey suggests that this is a photocopy of the colour one. It is said that there was different grey-tone map printed on this date.

Single-sided, small sheet, small grey-tone sheet.

• Franklin St closed.
• Todd Glickman: Revision of 1&2 local to Brooklyn and 3 express to 14th Street

2001, September 19th, small colour sheet

Same format as the colour map on 17th September: single-sided, small sheet, printed in colour.

• Franklin St open.

This is the first normal format map after the WTC attack. I.e. it is full-size, full-colour, and printed on both sides of the paper. Changes:

• Wall Street station opened on East Side IRT.

2001, October 1st, small colour sheet

Same format as the colour map on 17th September: single-sided, small sheet, printed in colour. Changes:

• Chambers Street station opened.

2001, October 28th, small colour sheet

Same format as the colour map on 17th September: single-sided, small sheet, printed in colour. Changes:

• Rector Street opened.
• Todd Glickman: N,R,Q/Q,W,J,M,Z back to normal.

2001, December 16th

Changes: The map itself is dated only to December 2001, but it shows the new V line, which opened on 16th December, so the map can be effective only from that date. Format: Colour, large sheet: this is the normal size map. Todd Glickman: Adds the V and resultant changes in F and G service; closed stations/lines due to WTC are in half-tone with notations

2002, January

Changes: The reference code is the same as for December 2001. Changes: The only differences I'm aware of so far are textual: In the key, the sentence

"Because of space constraints, geographic elements have been modified"

"To show service more clearly, geography on this map has been modified"

Changes:

• "WTC on the E reopened (without ADA access) and a new Transit Museum Gallery advertisement." (Source: subway-buff on SubTalk.)
• Added web site www.mta.info.

Changes:

• Line 2 listed as a local service during late night, whereas previously it was list as express all day. (Source mr_brian on SubTalk.) The service has actually been local during late night for some years. (Source: David J Greenberger on SubTalk.)
• Added some ferry routes, including the long-ignored East River shuttle, as well as the new / newly revived Hunterspoint routes. (Source: David_Chui on SubTalk.)
• The W through lower Manhattan is in parentheses, with a footnote explaining that it only runs there nights and weekends. The local stops north of Canal Stree should get similar treatment. (Source: David J Greenberger on SubTalk.) If all part-time services that diverge from the main route are to be footnoted, then this should apply also to the local stops along 4th Avenue; and the G running past Court Square to Forst Hills off-hours- and get rid of the dotted green line. (Howard Fein on SubTalk.)