Today’s #stampoftheday hints at the wonderful backstory behind the construction of LaGuardia Airport, which opened in 1939. The stamp itself is a 15-cent airmail stamp, issued on August 20, 1947 that pictures an airplane flying over the Statue of Liberty with the Manhattan skyline in the background. It shows this vignette because the stamp’s value meant it primarily would be used for airmail going to countries in Europe and North Africa, and New York City was the major port of entry for people and goods from those countries.

It wasn’t always clear that planes or the airmail they carried would go to New York City. In May 1918, the first email flight from New York took off from the infield of the Belmont Park race track, which is located on Long Island, just outside the city’s limits. In December 1919, the service was moved to an airfield in Newark that was close to New York City. In 1928, the city of Newark opened a new airport on 68 acres of wetlands along the Passaic River that were close to roads and rail lines serving New York City as well as downtown Newark. The new airport, which was the airmail hub for the region, soon became the busiest commercial airport in the world. In 1933, 120,000 passengers passed through the airport as did 1.5 million pounds of airmail mail, and 425,000 pounds of express mail.

New York City had not ignored the growth of aviation. But in the late 1920s, it built its airport, Floyd Bennett Field, at a remote location in Brooklyn’s Marine Park neighborhood, which was farther from Manhattan than the airport in Newark. So in contrast to Newark, in 1933 that field only 52 airline passengers, 98 bags of mail, and 100 pounds of express mail passed through that facility.

This situation bothered Fiorello LaGuardia, a liberal Republican who was elected mayor of New York in November 1933. As a Congressman, he had advocated that the city build an airport on Governors Island, in the middle of New York Harbor, close to Manhattan. To press his case, in 1934 the newly elected mayor refused to deplane when he was the passenger on a commercial flight that landed in Newark because, he said, his ticket said “New York” not “Newark.” Finally, the pilot relented and flew LaGuardia to Floyd Bennett Field. Since reporters were with him, he gave an impromptu press conference on that flight, and the stunt got the attention that LaGuardia wanted.

LaGuardia began to focus on North Beach Airport, a small private airfield owned by the Curtiss-Wright Corp. located on a desolate peninsula on the Queens shoreline, overlooking a massive garbage dump on Rikers Island. It wasn’t pretty, but it was soon to be less isolated because the Triborough Bridge was being built and planning was underway for the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. Moreover, planning had started for a world’s fair to be held at nearby Flushing Meadow, wetlands that were being used as a dumping ground for ashes. In August 1937, the city bought the field and immediately began to more than quintuple its 105 acres with 17 million cubic yards of landfill scooped up from Rikers Island’s mountains of cinder, ash and refuse. More than 20,000 relief workers funded by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked around the clock for two years to build the new airport, which the mayor wanted to open before the World’s Fair opened in April 1939.

The airport, which cost $40 million (about three times what was estimated) didn’t open until October in ceremonies attended by more than 250,000 people. Thanks to its modern design, low-cost leases given to the airlines, which all moved from Newark to the new airport, and support from the Roosevelt Administration which not only funded the airport but also moved airmail operations there after it opened, the new airport was a success. However, by the end of World War II, the continuing investments needed to sustain development and operations at the airport was proving to be draining for New York City or the airlines. LaGuardia, however, was not the one to solve this problem because he was increasingly unpopular. So, having served three terms, he decided not to run for a fourth term. After he left office he served as the director general of the new UN’s Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

The city began to look for an entity to take over the airport and a new field it was developing because LaGuardia was too small. Over the next few years the Port Authority of New York, which operated the Hudson River bridges and many of the region’s port facilities fought with Robert Moses, head of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority for control of the fields. Despite Moses’ power and influence, the Port Authority won, and in July 1947 (two months before LaGuardia died), the city agreed to lease the fields to the Port Authority (as did the city of Newark, which was facing similar problems). The Port Authority took control of the airports a year later and finished building Idlewild Airport which was renamed Idlewild Airport.

LaGuardia, which covers only about 680 acres, handled more than 15 million enplanements in 2018, making it the 21st busiest airport in the country. The airport also has been ranked in numerous customer surveys as the worst in the United States. Among pilots, it is referred to as “USS LaGuardia”, because the runways are short and surrounded by water, thus giving the feel of landing on an aircraft carrier. For what it’s worth, Newark, which covers more than 2,000 acres, was the 11th busiest airport, handling almost 23 million enplanements; JFK, which covers more than 5,000 acres, was the 4th busiest airport, handling more than 30 million enplanement. The busiest airport is Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, which covers just under 5,000 acres, was the busiest airport, handling more than 50 million enplanements. The largest airport is Denver International Airport, which covers more than 33,000 acres and handled just over 30 million enplanements.

I’m sure there’s a deeper meaning in all of this but I’m not sure what it is. So I’ll leave it there – an airport that owed its existence to the creativity and drive of a man who generally is considered one of the nation’s greatest mayors and also is the source of the famous line about governance: “There is no Democratic or Republican way of cleaning the streets.” LaGuardia also said “Only a well-fed, well-housed, well-schooled people can enjoy the blessings of liberty.” Both points are worth remembering in these challenging times.

Be well, stay safe, fight for justice and work for peace.