In another section, there are three maps of the individual BMT, IND, and IRT subway systems, which eventually merged to create the unified system we know today, that were created around the time of the 1939 World’s Fair. A map of the city’s water table from the 1860s, for instance, sheds light on why subway stations in much of lower Manhattan are so shallow-there’s simply not enough dry land to make the stations deeper than they are. The earliest maps in the exhibit date back to the 19th century, long before there was an underground rail system to speak of, but they help provide context for the development of the subway system. (And yes, Vignelli’s once derided, and now beloved 1972 map is on view, too.) Hence the inclusion of objects like a Pantone board showing all of the colors used by Unimark’s Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda when they designed the now-iconic scheme used to denote the various subway lines. “If we just said, ‘This was this map, and that was that map,’ it wouldn’t be as rich and full a story,” Bencivenga explains. New York Subway Guide, 1972 Unimark International for Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Courtesy of the New York Transit Museum

Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda’s 1972 subway map.

Nyc train map