Railroad Legacy Map of the US
The Railroad Legacy Map of the US traces how rail lines reshaped American life, from the standard time zones the railroads invented to the industrial growth of the 19th and 20th centuries. National Geographic layers today’s network over the vanished one, so a single sheet holds both eras. It reads well framed in a den, a home office, or above a model railroad bench, and rail historians tend to study it for a long while.
- Routes of today’s seven Class 1 railroads plus Amtrak’s passenger network
- The more than one hundred Class 1 lines operating in 1920, when over 2 million people, five percent of the U.S. work force, worked for the railroads
- Present-day rail hubs shown alongside 1920 hubs
- Text and illustrations covering key events, including the 1913 opening of Grand Central Terminal and the last Class I line to run steam locomotives in 1960
- Notable sites marked: tunnels, train spotting locations, and railroad museums
- Published by National Geographic at a scale of 1:6,040,000
- Available at Map Shop on paper, laminated, foam core, railed, or framed in black or walnut molding

