Pipsqueaky, Depression Era New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was the one who made sure this airport, New York’s smallest, got built. The tiny Tammany Hall foe famously refused to exit a plane that had landed in Newark, insisting that his ticket read New York, not New Jersey. He demanded to be taken to New York, and urged New Yorkers to support a new airport within the city. Today, the airport he championed while in office is located in northern Queens on the waterfront of Flushing Bay, just down the highway from Shea Stadium
La Guardia Airport opened for business on December, 2nd, 1939.
La Guardia was leased to the Port Authority in 1947. It was the the first airport be “full service”, boasting a florist, beauty salon, bank, jewelry shop, and brokerage office for travelers.
Central Terminal Building passenger waiting area. Folks are sure dressed nicely for flying!
Fans and the media welcome the Brooklyn Dodgers back from a triumph over St. Louis.
SNACKS!!!!!!
The airport was called “the world’s greatest development in civil aviation since Lindberg flew the Atlantic” and within a year it became the busiest commercial airport in the world.
The skywalk observation deck was a popular attraction, attracting more than a million people a year. For a nickel you could see the planes up close.
The airport was built on the former site of the – probably haunted – Gala Amusement Park, a popular destination owned by the Steinway family.
Happy flying!