<bold>From Harlem and upper Manhattan to Brooklyn, Queens and the Atlantic Ocean - New York city's A Line subway route covers over 30 miles, takes two hours to ride from end to end, and is the inspiration for one of jazz's best known tunes.</bold>
Here - with archive images and vibrant present-day photographs from Melanie Burford - New Yorker columnist Adam Gopnik takes a ride on one of today's A trains, and explores the communities living along the route.
<bold>Adam Gopnik spoke to Columbia University historian Kenneth Jackson - Brooklyn trader Leticia Mulzac - and Howard Schwach who edits Rockaway's community newspaper, The Wave. Click bottom right for image captions.</bold>
<bold>You Must Take the A Train can be heard on </bold> <link> <caption>BBC Radio 4</caption> <url href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio/bbc_radio_four" platform="highweb"/> </link> <bold> (FM only) at 1102 BST on Friday 29 June. </bold>
<italic>New York Transit Museum images cannot be reproduced without written permission from New York Transit Museum Archives. </italic>
<italic>Other images courtesy Melanie Burford and Getty Images. All images subject to copyright. Music by Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. </italic>
<italic>You Must Take the A Train is a Corporation For Independent Media production.</italic>
<italic>Slideshow production by Paul Kerley and Judith Kampfner. Publication date 29 June 2012. </italic>
<bold>Related:</bold>
<link> <caption>You Must Take the A Train - BBC Radio 4</caption> <url href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01k2f7s" platform="highweb"/> </link>
<link> <caption>Melanie Burford - Photographer</caption> <url href="http://www.primecollective.com/burford/" platform="highweb"/> </link>
<link> <caption>New York Transit Museum</caption> <url href="http://www.mta.info/mta/museum/" platform="highweb"/> </link>
<link> <caption>Jazz Museum Harlem</caption> <url href="http://www.jazzmuseuminharlem.org/" platform="highweb"/> </link>
<italic>The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.</italic>
<bold>More audio slideshows:</bold>
<itemMeta>news/magazine-18522990</itemMeta>
<itemMeta>news/in-pictures-18242214</itemMeta>
<itemMeta>news/magazine-18542080</itemMeta>