NEW YORK - A new book is celebrating the city's subway system by taking a look at one of its storied traditions.

"The Subway Girls" centers on the historic Miss Subways contest, which ran from 1941 to 1976.

Winners got their photos hung up on subway cars along with a few lines about their interests and goals. 

More than a dozen former title-holders reunited Tuesday at Opry City Stage to chat with the book's author.

"My book is dual storyline so it has a 1949 story line of two young women competing in Miss Subways but I have a 2018 storyline with an ambitious female advertising executive. And it shows how the differences for women and ambition and the opportunities available to them and obstacles changed," said Susie Orman Schnall, the book's author.

"It did a lot for me. I got a lot of work, freelance work, I did some off-Broadway print work and lot of modeling back then," said Ayana Scott Lawson, a former Miss Subway.

Competitors say the contest was unique because it gave opportunities to working women from all backgrounds.