LONG ISLAND - LIRR MAP ARCHIVES


Long Island 1706 map excerpted from a larger New England map  Archive: oldmaps.com

In 1609, the Dutch East India Company hired English sailor Henry Hudson to find a northeast passage to India. After unsuccessfully searching for a route above Norway, Hudson turned his ship west and sailed across the Atlantic.

The first attempt to settle came in 1624, when a group of settlers were sent by the Dutch West India Company. Most of them proceeded upriver to the present site of Albany, but eight men remained on Manhattan and were joined the following year by 45 more settlers. Fort Amsterdam was built to protect the little colony.

In 1626, Peter Minuit, the third governor, was instructed to settle the ownership of Manhattan with the Indians. He negotiated a purchase price that has been valued at about 60 guilders, or $24. He also named the town New Amsterdam. Under the later administration of Peter Stuyvesant, the colony prospered, and by the 1650s, about 1,000 were living in New Amsterdam. In 1653, the year that New Amsterdam was incorporated as a city, Stuyvesant built a wooden palisade where Wall Street is today, to mark the northern city limits.

On September 8, 1664, New Amsterdam was forced to surrender to Colonel Richard Nicolls as a result of the ongoing struggle between the British and the Dutch. The fort was renamed Fort James and the city, New York. The British were ousted by the Dutch for a short period (1673-1674), but otherwise the city was a British possession until the American Revolution. Source: Wiki

One can see the early Dutch influence on place names such as Flatbush, Flushing, and Brooklyn as follows:

Haarlem -> Harlem
Breukelen -> Brooklyn
Staten Land -> Staten Island
De Bouwerij -> The Bowery
de Brede Weg -> Broadway
Jonas Bronck -> the Bronx
's-Gravesande -> Gravesend
Konijneneiland -> Coney Island 
('rabbits' island') 
't Lange Eiland -> Long Island
'(the) Long Island'
Vlissingen -> Flushing 
Before there was a New York, English sailors already used the name 'Flushing' for the Dutch port of Vlissingen

Native American influence abounds: Sachem Pond (Lake Ronkonkoma), Mentock Point, Hamsted Plains, Meritiock Bay, etc. and of course English influence: Hampton, New York, Newtown, Bedford, etc. all yield a rich cultural naming influence early on that influences the current geographic and place name history to this day! Info: Steven Lynch
 

 

LIRR Fan Trips with Maps
LIRR Robert Emery Track Maps
LIRR MP54 Track Capacity Maps
LIRR Expansion Maps Graphic
LIRR West Side Yard
Montauk Branch - Wilhelm Maps

Topographic Maps:
AnyPlaceAmerica
TopoZone

 


LIRR Legacy Track Numbering 1/02/2021

LIRR Maps 1952-1955
Henry Raudenbush

LIRR Electrified  Archive: Jeff Erlitz

LI City  Archive: Jeff Erlitz

LIRR East End  Archive: Jeff Erlitz


                  Henry Raudenbush October 1952 Map LIRR System   




Fremont October 1952 Map


Central Branch Extension

I spent a lot of time digging out the data for that map.  Where I couldn't see things from trains, I walked.  So I walked all around Hempstead crossing and that's when I saw those feeder rails.  Then I walked the lines from there to Mineola and to West Hempstead .

I had the map printed, just in time for the fantrip with #107, and it proved to be a fast seller, so I called home and had the folks bring more copies and meet the trip at a photo stop on the Creedmoor Branch.  

On the following Monday, I had a call from Paul Blauvelt, the LIRR PR department.  He wanted to know if the RR could buy 20 copies, and would I be willing to be interviewed for the Railroad.  I went down to Jamaica, and that's when that picture was taken.  

In the summer of 1957, I worked in the Chief Engineer's office, and found a copy of my map in the file there.  

On the stretch to West Hempstead , the track ran on a diagonal to the street grid.  Somewhere along there, there was a place where it crossed an east- west street, then a north-south street. Between the two streets the track ran across what looked like somebody's front yard for about 30 feet.  In this section, there was a 20 foot length of 3rd rail!  No fences, nothing. 

Things were more casual then, and what's more everybody on Long Island knew, and taught their kids, the dangers of the 3rd rail.   6/06/2010 Henry Raudenbush

 

LIRR Track Profile Maps 1983
Archive: John Fusto
Track-profile-Index-Legend.jpg (201373 bytes)
LIRR System Road Charts Index/Legend - March 1983

 Track-profile-Index-Legend-2.jpg (153965 bytes)

patchtrackprofilemap1981.jpg (96245 bytes)
Patchogue 1983 Archive: John Fusto  Creation:  Steve Lynch 

montuakbranchtrackprofilemap0-6miles.jpg (192218 bytes)
Montauk Branch track profile map LI City 0-6 miles 1983 Archive: John Fusto

richmondhillglendaletrackprofilemap.jpg (156756 bytes)
LIRR Glendale to Richmond Hill track profile map Archive: John Fusto

babylon-patchogue_trackprofilemap.jpg (572830 bytes)
Babylon to Patchogue Composite Map updated 1982 Archive: John Fusto  Creation:  Steve Lynch 

bellport-westhampton_trackprofilemap.jpg (424758 bytes)
Bellport to Westhampton Composite Map updated 1981  Archive: John Fusto  Creation:  Steve Lynch 
LIRR Track Profile Maps 1994

LIRR MOW System Track Profile Maps LEGEND 1/1994

Track-profile-map_MP0-6_1994.jpg (336504 bytes)
Main Line Track profile map LI City
MP0-MP5 1994

LIRR 1994 MOW System Track Profile Maps

 



LIRR map 1847

LIRR map 1882 G.W. and C. B Colton
LIRR-map_1898.jpg (219597 bytes)
LIRR Map 1898

Servoss map 1901 R. D. Servoss Published: Isaac H. Blanchard Co. Archive: New York Public Library

Gulick Realty map 3/04/1906 Brooklyn Eagle ad

An important factor in the development of Queens in 1906 is the vast system of public improvements undertaken by the Pennsylvania Railroad, which include those of its subsidiary corporations, the Long Island Railroad and the New York Connecting Railroad. The great tunnel building enterprises under the North and East Rivers and Manhattan Island and the huge union station in Manhattan, extending from Seventh to Ninth Avenues and from 31st to 33rd Streets; the New York Connecting Railroad and the Belmont Tunnel will have aid in bringing the thousands of unimproved acres of Queens within 10 to 25 minutes from the heart of Manhattan.

The great Blackwell’s Island Bridge (later Roosevelt Island - Queensborough Bridge) - the largest of the quartet to span the East River and the largest cantilever bridge in the world - will be the important center from which will radiate some of the principal highways of the borough. On the upper floor will be two sidewalks, each eleven feet in width, which will form the most magnificent and popular promenade in the city, affording from their great height of 150 feet, a view of every section of Manhattan and Queens, and of the hills of New Jersey, and of Westchester and of Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic.

The nucleus of the proposed Queens system is a grand parkway at no point less than 200 feet wide, from Forest Park along the top of the great backbone of the range of hills running through the borough south of Jamaica to the city line east - over six miles - expanding into parks at the sections where the most remarkable irregularity of these hills renders them most expensive and wasteful for plotting and thus all the better adapted for easy and beautiful park treatment. Such a development of these hilltops would cause Queens to be widely renown. -Excerpt & Map from Brooklyn Eagle, March 4, 1906

LIRR Map 1915 - Long Island Railroad System and Montauk Steamboat Company's Lines

LIRR map 12/1925. Electrification to Babylon May 20, 1925. West Hempstead Branch "to be electrified in 1926" on Oct. 18, 1926.
Therefore, the map is from anytime between these 2 dates. Dave Keller
LIRR-Freight-Stations-map_c.1930.jpg (273451 bytes)
LIRR Freight Stations in Greater New York map c.1930

LIRR - Progress of Electrification  Map - 9/15/1948 Archive: Jeff Erlitz

LIRR Freight stations/locations map 6/15/1969  Archive/Research: Kevin Wong
Note: A freight station shown may not be an actual depot or terminal, but could simply be a team track or siding usable for pickup or delivery (called a non-agency freight station). Several freight stations were closed or removed from tariff schedules since January 1955 (refer to the PRR A.D. 80 station index), including East Williston, Mill Neck, Hewlett, Woodmere, Baldwin, Wantagh, Seaford, Amityville, Cold Spring Harbor and Stony Brook. Peconic is still included, though removed from service in 1966. Some staffed freight stations with agents did not have separate facilities and the freight agent was based in the passenger station.

tristate1918reprint1940.jpg (156393 bytes)
1918 Composite Area Map 
(reprint 1940) Creation:  Steve Lynch

 1918tristateNYCity.jpg (101451 bytes)
1918 NY City  Tri-State Area

1918NJarea.jpg (108714 bytes)
1918 New Jersey Area


1918Narrows.jpg (79971 bytes)
1918 Verrazano Narrows 

Central-Railroad-LI-map_LibraryofCongress_4-22-1873.jpg (3631126 bytes)
LIRR and Central Railroad of LI - 1873 Library of Congress

crlirr_farmingdale1873.jpg (302099 bytes)
Central Railroad of LI Garden City to Babylon 1873


Belcher-Hyde - Nassau County map 1914

1907steamboatlirr.jpg (59685 bytes)
1907 Steam Boat Line LIRR

1916map.jpg (706659 bytes)
1916 Western LIRR 
Archive: Steven M. Swirsky

 



Brookhaven Rail Terminal 2009

MP-41_LIRR-operations_George Chiasson Jr-red.jpg (422960 bytes)
Routes of LIRR MP41 operations. Map courtesy of Herb George's Change at Ozone Park.  Red route lines added and map captioned by Dave Keller and Chuck Blardone of  "The Keystone".

 


1847 LIRR System

LIRR-map_c.1895-reprint.jpg (439268 bytes)
LIRR map c.1895 reprint


1873 Central RR
Farmingdale, NY

LIRR_1909_Queens_station.jpg (138144 bytes)
 1909 Queens Station - 1909


1900 LIRR System

1898  Brooklyn - Queens Newtown area

1938 "World's Fair"
 


1920 Bushwick Freight Branch


1914 LIRR System map


1990's Central Freight Branch
with text


1955 Rockaway Beach Branch
lirrfreightmap1986.jpg (89921 bytes)
LIRR Freight Brochure 05/86
Archive: Paul Strubeck


Town of Southampton map - 6/1940 William K. Dunwell
Archive: Southampton Long Island 1640-1965  - LIRR Station notations: Steven Lynch  3/2023

Long Island USGS Topographic Maps

USGS_Brooklyn-Quadrangle_1889.jpg (1512400 bytes)
USGS Brooklyn Quadrangle 1889


Western part of  Hempstead Township c.1905 USGS Topographic Survey Map  
Nassau County created on January 1, 1899  Charles D. Walcott (1850-1927) director in 1894, April 1907 resigned as Director of the USGS  Research: Steven Lynch
LIRR Main Line 3rd Track Project 

 May 5, 2016 MTA Document George Chiasson Jr.
General-Notice_4-13_7-16-2018-diagram.jpg (61507 bytes)
General Notice 4-13  7/16/2018 Interlocking Diagram - Jeff Erlitz
2024 NYSDOT Rail Maps

Enlarged detail inset of the metro region, showing active and abandoned LIRR lines. Note the East Side Access to Grand Central is active on both the 2023 and 2024 editions. This 2024 map shows the NYNJ Rail carfloat ferry between 65th Street in Brooklyn and Bayonne, NJ (Greenville).  Archive: Kevin Wong