The Health and Pleasure Resorts of New York and New England The Best Way to Reach Them Via “America’s Greatest Railroad”

Take ‘America’s Greatest Railroad’ to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago!

The World’s Only Four Track Railroad’, ‘The Fastest and Most Perfect Through Train Service in the World’, ‘The Direct Line to Niagara Falls’, ‘The Most Comfortable Route to the World’s Fair’ – various measures of hyperbole are used to describe Cornelius Vanderbilt’s New York Central and Hudson River Railroad on this 1895 map and timetable. The image presents a distorted outline of New England and the Upper Midwest (note the skewed state borders and lack of distance scale).

The ‘Health and Pleasure Resorts’ of the former are made accessible to the weary city dwellers of Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Albany, Boston, and New York. Primary routes and connecting lines, including the famous four track line between New York and Buffalo, in operation by the New York Central are highlighted throughout. Topography is depicted pictorially and an interesting method of shading possibly highlights agricultural areas in green (commodities were an important source of revenue for the railroad).

The verso presents a detailed timetable outlining departure and arrival times at stops across the vast network. The map was published in Buffalo, New York by the Matthews-Northrup Company on behalf of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad in December of 1895.