Titled “Jersey City,” this U.S. Geological Survey topographical map was published in 1964 using survey data from 1955, preserving a richly detailed portrait of the lower Hudson waterfront at mid-century. At 1:24,000 scale, it brings together Jersey City, Hoboken, Bayonne, Weehawken, and portions of Manhattan, including Greenwich Village, within a single carefully measured urban landscape. The map’s red urban tinting, blue waterways, and precise street and shoreline delineation are characteristic of USGS cartography of the period, balancing scientific clarity with understated visual elegance. It captures a metropolitan threshold: rail yards, piers, canals, dense street grids, and tidal waters all arranged around the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, and New York Bay.

The U.S. Geological Survey, founded in 1879, became one of the world’s most influential mapping agencies through its systematic depiction of the American landscape. Its topographic quadrangles were created for practical use—engineering, planning, resource management, military reference, and public administration—but today they also serve as remarkable historical records. In “Jersey City,” the USGS method is especially compelling because the subject is not wilderness or mountain country, but one of the most intensely built environments in the United States. Buildings, docks, transportation corridors, water margins, and municipal boundaries appear with disciplined precision, revealing how topography in an urban setting is shaped as much by infrastructure and industry as by natural landforms.

Jersey City dominates the map as a complex industrial and residential city facing Manhattan across the Hudson River. Its streets and waterfront works speak to its long role as a gateway for freight, commuters, and immigrants moving between New Jersey and New York. Nearby Hoboken and Weehawken appear along the river’s edge, historically tied to ferries, rail terminals, shipping, and elevated views of Manhattan. To the south, Bayonne and the waters of New York Bay evoke the maritime economy that sustained the region for generations. Kearny Point and the surrounding lowlands hint at the broader estuarine geography of the Hackensack and Passaic river systems, where marsh, industry, and transportation converged.

Across the river, the inclusion of Greenwich Village adds a powerful cultural dimension to the map’s otherwise technical language. By the mid-1950s, the Village was already legendary as a center of bohemian life, modern art, literature, jazz, political dissent, and unconventional urban community. Its irregular street pattern contrasts with Manhattan’s more rigid grid, preserving traces of older settlement beneath the modern metropolis. On this map, Greenwich Village is not romanticized; it is rendered in the same precise cartographic vocabulary as docks, avenues, canals, and rail lines. Yet that neutrality makes it especially evocative, placing one of America’s great cultural neighborhoods within the working geography of the harbor city.

As a historical document, “Jersey City” captures a landscape on the cusp of dramatic transformation. Much of the waterfront shown here would later be reshaped by containerization, deindustrialization, redevelopment, park creation, and new commuter infrastructure. The area now associated with Liberty State Park, for example, was still deeply marked by rail and maritime industry in the period reflected by the survey. The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, now emblematic of public access and urban renewal, belongs to a later vision of the same shoreline. This map therefore offers more than orientation: it reveals the mid-20th-century city before reinvention, when harbors, canals, piers, and dense neighborhoods still defined the everyday geography of New York Harbor.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Jersey City
• Greenwich Village
• Hoboken
• Bayonne
• New York Bay
• Upper New York Bay
• Hudson River
• Gowanus Canal
• Weehawken
• Carteret
• Kearny Point
• Liberty State Park
• Hudson River Waterfront Walkway
• Various streets and roads throughout Jersey City and surrounding areas

Historical context & cartographic details

• Historical 1:24,000 topographical map titled “Jersey City.”
• Derived from survey data from 1955 and published in 1964.
• Produced by the U.S. Geological Survey, known for its topographical mapping and geological surveys.
• Focuses on Jersey City and surrounding areas, including notable locations in New York City.
• Greenwich Village is historically significant as a vibrant cultural hub associated with the arts, bohemian life, and important American cultural movements.
• Uses a color scheme typical of USGS maps from this period, with red indicating populated areas and blue signifying water bodies.
• Shows detailed urban development, including buildings, streets, and bodies of water.
• Captures both topographical and hydrological features of the area.
• Serves as a mid-20th-century historical snapshot of urban development, infrastructure, and land use.

Looking for a particular place? Review the detailed images to confirm that the town, landmark or feature you have in mind appears on the map. If you are unsure, ask our workshop to check before you order.

Detailed maps are especially rewarding at larger sizes, where names, boundaries and decorative features have more room to be appreciated. Use the close-up preview and size guide to choose the right scale for your wall.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 50in (125cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 16x20in (40x50cm) version of this map.

Where personalisation is available, you can add a short title or dedication, mark one meaningful place, or request one considered visual detail. See personalised map examples.

Every piece is printed to museum-grade archival standards using fade-resistant pigment inks on acid-free matte paper. Choose an unframed map print, framed map or canvas using the finish options above. Framed maps use crystal-clear optical acrylic and arrive ready to hang.

With its rich detail and strong sense of place, this map makes a considered gift for a new home, anniversary, retirement or anyone with a personal connection to the area shown. Still deciding? Explore our collection of rare old and vintage maps to discover another place, period or style.

This map is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The map is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present a map without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas maps and explore the differences between my different finishes.

For something truly unique, this map is also available in "Unique 3D", our trademarked process that dramatically transforms the map so that it has a wonderful sense of depth. We combine the original map with detailed topography and elevation data, so that mountains and the terrain really "pop". For more info and examples of 3D maps, check my Unique 3D page.