Gallery: The Lost NYC Subway Map That May Vastly Improve Modern Ones
1964 Raleigh D'Adamo, 2015 Reka Komoli011964subwaymap-cmyk
In 1964, R. Raleigh D'Adamo designed this color-coded subway map for New York City. It's recently been digitally restored.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority0205 - 1958 Salomon map extract
Before that, maps used three colors corresponded to the three companies that once owned and operated the system’s various routes, not the system’s organization as a whole.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority0307 - 1967 map extract
After D'Adamo's map won a redesign competition held by the Transit Authority, this is what the city's designers came up. It's the first color-coded map for the New York City subway system.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority0408 - 1972 Vignelli map extract
In 1972, Massimo Vignelli's famous, streamlined, version of the map debuted.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority0509 - 1979 Tauranac map extract
In 1979 an even more simplified version by John Tauranac rolled out.
John Tauranac0610 - 2015 Tauranac map extract
In 2011, John Tauranac released an unofficial update on his own map. The subway map never stops evolving, it seems.
Joseph Brennan0711 - 2015 Brennan map extract
The current map in use was designed by Joseph Brennan.
