On April 9, 2018, a video of an unusual event became popular: at the Zapata subway station, users formed orderly lines in front of the cars to enter in turns. The video already has around 1.5 million reproductions and reactions to the unusual fact that in the 49 years since the first subway car crossed the 12.66 km that comprised the Zaragoza-Chapultepec stations, there has not been a single occasion - at least recorded - in which the capital's inhabitants sought order instead of rushing in a marabout towards the carriage doors. The subway is now almost 50 years old, and in this city we are already almost 9 million; this gallery shows some moments of the soon to be 5 decades of the public transport system.
*click on the image to see gallery
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- 1960- Construction of Metro Line 1 on Calzada de Tacubaya, today the Circuito Interior. This section of the line corresponds to the Juanacatlán-Tacubaya station.
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- The view from the cab of a brand new MP68 train arriving at Zaragoza station in 1969.
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- The gleaming Insurgentes Metro station shortly before its inauguration in 1969. The Observatorio terminal icon already appears on the directional board, even though it was not inaugurated until 1972.
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- On September 5, 1969, one day after the inauguration of the Metro, the first passengers greet the camera at Chapultepec station. On the right is one of the benches that were on the platforms and years later were removed.
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- The public awaits the arrival of the Metro at the Merced station on September 5, 1969, the day it was opened to the public.
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- People wait on a Metro platform shortly after the opening of the system in 1969. On the right is one of the automatic doors that limited access when the train arrived, and which were removed shortly thereafter.
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- A Metro security guard instructs users not to cross the yellow line on the platform shortly after the opening.
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- A female driver from the first group of women drivers poses in the cab of a model NM79 train, apparently in the shunting queue at the then Zapata terminal station.
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- The Metro cabin, a place we all wanted to enter at one time or another. In this 1969 photograph we see the board just arrived from France.
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- The interior of the Candelaria Metro station, shortly after its opening in 1969. This construction, with its characteristic concrete "umbrellas", was planned by Félix Candela and remains with few changes to this day.
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- President Miguel de la Madrid and Regent Ramón Aguirre ride in a Metro car during the inauguration of one of the system's sections.
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- View of the Viaducto Metro station in mid-1976, when line 2 ran only to Tacuba, as can be seen on the direction board. It was the time of flared pants.
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- The Chapultepec Metro station in the 1970s, when there were still benches in all the stations. They were removed in order to save space due to the increase in the number of users.
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- The interior of a Metro line 2 car at the Tasqueña station in the early 1980s. The seats were cushioned, there were no announcements and the windows were operated by turning a crank.
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- A Balderas subway sign in a photograph by Lance Wyman, the designer of the transit system's iconography.
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- A Robin Bath photograph of the Balbuena subway entrance.
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- The access vestibule to the San Lazaro Metro station in a photograph from the 1990s. The concrete structure that characterizes the station, designed by Félix Candela and inaugurated in 1969, can be seen.
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