The New York City subway system is something many New Yorkers just take for granted and complain about. It's not like we don't have good reasons-- it's always in a state of delay and disrepair.
But the history of the subway goes back over a hundred years and much of the details about today's subway, as in where it goes and what the lines are called, are as twisted and confusing as the labyrinthine tunnels themselves.
So did you ever wonder why there's no H, I, K, or O train? Why there are three S lines? How come the Second Avenue line still doesn't exist?
Keep reading, we're running down a brief history of the subway.
The subway as we know it today was opened late in October of 1904. Called the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT), it was nowhere near as expansive as we're used to today.
There was also the Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT), which in a few years was renamed Brooklyn-Manhattan Rapid Transit (BMT) merged with the IRT. At first, the BMT lines were named numbers 1-16.
The IRT ran mainly in an H shape in Manhattan, which is why people referred to it as "H System" for a spell, before everything expanded past the point of resembling a single letter. Until the 50s, the subway remained much the same, losing a line here or there, like the 8 and 9 lines.
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While the above mentioned subways were privately owned, New York City opened its own system in 1934 called IND. It grew to include eight lines identified by letters.
They chose A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H, with two special S routes-- the "Train to the Plane" and the S to the Aqueduct Race Track. BY 1953, the City had bought all the subway lines and established the New York City Transportation Authority to run everything.
When the BMT and IND were purchased by the City, the BMT lines were renamed J, K, L, M, N, Q, R, and T with the two S shuttle lines.
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So why no O or I lines? Well, they look too much like 0 and 1. The subway is confusing enough as it is, including an O or I line would just be cruel to tourists.
By the late 60s there were nine shuttles. The lines were also color coded, and finally in 1972 all the subway lines appeared on one map famously designed by Massimo Vignelli. Weirdly enough, the 4 used to be purple and the now-defunct K line was once blue. Weird!
The subway keeps changing, and hopefully for the better. But you can't really complain about it properly in 2015 unless you know where it's come from.
Check out 8 Gifts to Get Real New Yorkers This Holiday Season.
[via Quartz]