diff --git a/js/id/renderer/map.js b/js/id/renderer/map.js
index 8ac6e494d..bfd11d1ac 100644
--- a/js/id/renderer/map.js
+++ b/js/id/renderer/map.js
@@ -81,6 +81,8 @@ iD.Map = function() {
         map.size(this.size());
 
         hideInspector();
+
+        map.surface = surface;
     }
 
     map.history = iD.History();
@@ -532,7 +534,6 @@ iD.Map = function() {
       return map;
     };
 
-    map.surface = surface;
     map.background = background;
     map.projection = projection;
     map.redraw = redraw;
diff --git a/test/spec/Map.js b/test/spec/Map.js
index 53672d318..40ecd50b4 100644
--- a/test/spec/Map.js
+++ b/test/spec/Map.js
@@ -60,4 +60,10 @@ describe('Map', function() {
             expect(map.extent()[1][0]).toBeCloseTo(36);
         });
     });
+
+    describe("surface", function() {
+        it("is an SVG element", function() {
+           expect(map.surface.node().tagName).toEqual("svg");
+        });
+    });
 });