File:1880 Colton Pocket Map of Long Island - Geographicus - LongIsland-colton-1880.jpg

English: This is Colton's 1880 New Map of Long Island, possibly the largest and most dramatic map of Long Island to appear in the 19th century. Covers the region from Newark, Staten Island, and New York City eastward as far as Montauk and Fisher Island. Includes the entirety of Long Island, the Long Island Sound, and the Connecticut Coast. A large inset in the lower right quadrant details New York City, particularly lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long Island City, as well as parts of Queens and Jersey City. Colton's first forays into the mapping of Long Island began in 1855 with his introduction of the Traveler's Map of Long Island, a pocket format map designed for stage travelers and for commuters on the rapidly developing Long Island Railroad. The construction of the LIRR, in combination with the increasingly expensive and unsanitary conditions of Manhattan, spurred massive and extensive emigration to the Island. Around 1873, recognizing the need for a large scale high quality map of Long Island, Colton redrew his rather small Traveler's Map on a significantly larger and more dramatic scale, producing this, Colton's New Map of Long Island. This map went through a series of editions in the subsequent years, reflecting an urgent need to keep up to date regarding the explosive growth through Long Island. In this particular edition, 1880, the western part of the Island is crisscrossed an advanced network of railways. The Brooklyn-Montauk railroad extend eastwards as far as Patchogue, the Long Island Railroad's Sag Harbor extension has been completed, and the main line itself extends as far as Greenpoint in the North Fork. The Hampton resort towns of Bridgehampton, Southampton, East Hampton, Amagansett, and Wainscott, all at this time sleepy fishing and farming communities, are well represented. The earliest edition of this map was most likely 1873, though we know of no extant examples, this is the earliest extant printing we know of. The latest known edition was printed 1890 and additional known editions were published in 1888 and 1883. Copyrighted in 1873 by G.W. and C.B. Colton.