[1][2] With the rise of GPS navigation and other electronic maps in the early 2000s, the printed-map business shrank to a fraction of its former size, undergoing extensive consolidation.
[4] To demonstrate his skills to potential customers, and also help them find his business, the new businessman produced a map of his shop location.
[8] The widened-street style was a hallmark of Hagstrom's product line; although it added clarity in navigation and labeling, the widened streets borrowed their space from the surrounding blocks, in some cases reducing them to slivers; for instance, the Flatiron Building appeared as "a speck where Broadway and Fifth Avenue converge".
This produced a number of other visual artifacts; new streets and neighborhoods had to be shoehorned into layouts designed around previously existing features.
The midtown maps, which detailed most of the significant buildings and businesses (Rockefeller Center, Pennsylvania Station, Saks Fifth Avenue, etc.)
show the changing face of the city's business district, and have started to draw the attention of map collectors.