The subway is a marvel of engineering, and so is the modern subway map. It was designed with the genius insight of a trained electrical draughtsman, using a simple plug diagram. For the first 25 years of its existence, London Underground riders relied on a map that reflected the actual distance between stations, as well as rivers, parks, and other aboveground phenomena. The brainchild of Harry Beck, a young draftsman in the London Underground Signals Office, the new map is more accurately a diag