Lets talk old maps and illistrations

[roadman65]

One thing that always irked me was on the old Exxon and Esso/ Enco maps, they showed many NYC Parkways as divided arterials instead of full freeways. Full freeways with no access except through interchanges was denoted with a dark red line between two thin black lines.  Many NYC parkways were not shown that way.  For example in Manhattan the FDR was shown in an orange line, which was the way a divided non freeway highway that was a principal through route was denoted on their maps.  If it had a green line it was a divided non freeway highway that was not a through route.  Then red was a non divided principle through road, and the black was just an undivided non through road.

Both the FDR and West Side Highway/ Henry Hudson were all shown in orange.  Also after the West Side Highway was closed permanently, the surface West Street and 12th Avenues were shown as an undivided highway with the typical red denotation even though we all know NY 9A is a multilane boulevard that is divided into 4 separate roadways similar to Queens Boulevard in Queens or the Grand Concourse in the Bronx.

Also the Belt Parkway was drawn as a freeway between the Verrazano Bridge and I-678 near JFK.  Yet the section between the two I-278 junctions looping around Bay Ridge had it shown as a divided non freeway arterial even though the road is the same both east and west of the Verrazano Bridge with grade separated interchanges and no intersections.

Another point of interest is the NYC area map published by Exxon which had New York blown up real well showing all NYC parkways as a dark green line, so there you would not see the orange and reds like in the state maps or even NJ's Exxon maps which would show some of NY and PA as well.

Does anyone remember these old Travel Vision Maps that Exxon and its former names used to use?  Also do you remember the NYC and Long Island exclusive map showing NYC and Nassau and Suffolk counties in a larger scale?  Most of all does anyone remember the Parkways on the regular maps incorrectly shown as well as NY 9A improperly drawn as an undivided Manhattan Street?

[empirestate]

One thing that always irked me was on the old Exxon and Esso/ Enco maps, they showed many NYC Parkways as divided arterials instead of full freeways. Full freeways with no access except through interchanges was denoted with a dark red line between two thin black lines.  Many NYC parkways were not shown that way.

Many NYC parkways were not divided highways until rather later in their existence, if ever. And many were not–and still are not–fully controlled-access roadways.