The Incredible Disappearing and Reappearing Rikers Island

It’s been a jail since 1932, but our ability to acknowledge Rikers Island on our subway maps has come and gone with the times. It’s a strange omission-despite that, yes, the subway map is called the “subway map” and the only way to get to Rikers is by car or the Q101 or Q100 bus, which starts in Long Island City. But the subway map is, for some people, the only way they can find out how to get around New York City. Let’s look at the magically disappearing Rikers on the maps from 1968 to 1998.

This, above, is my favorite; it’s the map that most of us are familiar with, though it’s actually had some iterations more recently which revealed Rikers Island. But before that, it did this classic job of showing where Rikers was but actually blotting it out, as if it couldn’t be named. And it’s not like that’s the bus info to get there-that’s a drop-down of Bronx bus routes.

Ta da oh hi you’re back!