Radiant Maps

New York City,
1977

24x34” illuminated print. Maps by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Between 1884 and 1992 the U.S. Geological Survey drew 178,000 topographic maps covering the nation; the 1:24,000 scale “topo quads” produced from 1945-1992 divide the entire country into 70-square-mile chunks. Nine of those quads comprise this map of New York City.

It makes a bad tourist map, marking all subway lines with the unhelpful “TRANSIT” and doesn't say which bridges you can walk on. It does tell you the shapes of the forts; these were traced from aerial photos, so if it could be resolved on film + legible to whoever looked at the film through magnified lenses, it was included on a topo quad.

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1970s-era illuminated topographic map of New York City. 1970s-era illuminated topographic map of New York City.

New York City, 1977

1970s-era illuminated topographic map of New York City. 1970s-era illuminated topographic map of New York City. 1970s-era illuminated topographic map of New York City.