The New York Subway Map, Explained

Antonio de Luca and Sasha Portis have created a unique interactive feature about the New York Subway map, which starts in 1979 with the hiring of Manhattan-based design firm Michael Hertz and Associates in creating a new map for the subway, responding to complaints about the readability of the previous map.

Calling the map a "record of how graphic design, politics, and geography have shaped the city over the last 40 years," de Luca and Portis take a deep dive into the most famous transit map in the United States, revealing a few truly surprising and amazing facts about the creation of the map.