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Description

One of the Very First Maps of the First New York Subway Line.

An important antique map of Manhattan south of 96th Street, illustrating the first subway line in New York, in the year it was inaugurated, 1904.

The map shows Manhattan crisscrossed by a series of elevated and electric railways, but with only one subway line, the original Interborough Rapid Transit line, commencing at City Hall and following Fourth (i.e. Park) Avenue to Broadway and the Upper West Side.

Dating the Map

This map was in use, in an earlier edition, at least as early as the 1890s, then also as a promotional piece focusing on New York City transit. See this example from our archive.

It makes sense that the 1890s map was reissued in the inaugural year of the New York Subway; the focus of the map was city transit, and the new subway line ran right past the Broadway Central Hotel.  Furthermore, we have found nothing on the map that would date it to after 1904. For instance, the new Wanamaker Department store (built in 1907) is not the one listed on the map, nor is the extension of the IRT line across the East River (1908) shown.

Near Grand Central Depot, Bryant Park and the Public Library are shown, the reservoir having been removed in 1900, prior to commencement of construction of the New York Public Library on 42nd Street, which started in 1902 and would be completed by 1911.

Condition Description
Minor loss at fold near the top of the image.