"Starting From Fish-Shaped Paumanok"*

CCLVII

Although the Wright brothers used the Outer Banks of North Carolina as their first flight laboratory and made the first confirmed successful powered airplane flight there at Kill Devil Hill near the village of Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903, Long Island is truly the cradle of aviation.

Roosevelt Field in the early 1920s

Long Island was underpopulated during the “Soaring Twenties,” and the flat-as-a-floor Hempstead Plains, the only natural North American prairie east of the Mississippi River, was a perfect landing field. In July 1919, the British dirigible R34 touched down at Mineola on Long Island during the first two-way crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by air. 

Unlike the far more vast western prairies, however, the Hempstead Plains area is blessed by proximity to the fleshpots of New York City. Pilots could indulge their randiest urges by taking a short train ride west, and aviation investors could eyeball what their money hath wrought by taking that same train ride eastward. Even before the advent of powered flight, balloonists from Long Island attempted to cross the Atlantic (1873), and glider pilots were soaring down the heights of the rocky North Shore (1896). Dirigibles carrying sightseers were rising aloft from Brooklyn as early as 1902. By 1910, there were three organized airfields on the Hempstead Plains, representing a significant fraction of all airports then in existence.

“Cal” Rogers came from an adventurous family. His forebears included the two naval Commodores Perry, and his cousin John, who made the first successful flight from California to Hawaii

Long Island was the hub for the first experimental airmail flights in 1911, and was the liftoff point for Calbraith Perry Rogers, who flew from New York to California for the first time that same year (the flight took 49 days). Rogers died a few weeks later in 1912, when his airplane crashed in the Golden State. 

During World War I, Long Island bustled with aviation business. Mitchel Field, near Roosevelt Field, became the largest military airfield in the country. Naval aviators were being trained in Port Washington on the North Shore, and Bay Shore on the South Shore. Aircraft factories sprang up in Farmingdale and Baldwin to bolster the growing war effort.  They had names like Curtiss and Sikorsky and Fairchild and Sperry.

Among many other accomplishments, Floyd Bennett piloted the first North Polar flight with Admiral Richard E. Byrd

Young Juan Trippe founded a shuttle service between New York City and the Hamptons just after the war. In 1923, only twelve short years after Cal Rogers’ 49 day coast-to-coast flight the first nonstop transcontinental flight was made from Long Island. And, of course, Charles Lindbergh lifted off from Roosevelt Field to make his epochal flight to Paris.

In 1955, the historic airfield became the site of what was then the largest shopping mall in the world

An aerial view of the adjacent Mitchel Field and Roosevelt Field, circa 1930. Note the emptiness of Long Island’s Hempstead Plains

Mitchel Field was operational until 1961. This photo dates from 1968. Note the development around the field

Today, Mitchel Field is the site of Nassau Community College, Hofstra University, and the Nassau Coliseum. NCC’s first classes were held in the old hangars. A few military-era buildings remain today, and are still in use

The Borough and the County of Queens, on the western edge of the Hempstead Plains, was also an area that was early devoted to aviation. Before a massive population influx from Manhattan and the more urbanized areas of Brooklyn and the Bronx, early aviation pioneers used the flat lands of Queens, otherwise dedicated to potato farming, as space for airfields and factories.

As the only truly international city in the United States, New York has had a succession of Mayors as colorful and diverse as itself, dating back to Peter Stuyvesant. Among the most charismatic, beloved, and pugilistic was “The Little Flower,” Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia (1882-1947) the 99^th Mayor of the city. At only 5’2” and with a flaming temper, he ran as a Republican, trounced the opposition in traditionally Democratic New York, and crushed the Tammany Hall machine with flair and verve. A dedicated New Dealer, he supported FDR’s policies despite their differences in party affiliation. Tough but tender he made it a point to read the Sunday funny papers over the radio to a rapt audience of children and adults alike. Ruling rather than governing the city between 1934 and 1945, he appealed to New Yorkers nevertheless, who loved him for his no-bullshit approach to politics, and because he, like they, was a child of immigrants. His parents were from Italy. His father was named Achille LaGuardia and was from Foggia. His mother was Irene Cohen from Trieste. Fiorello himself became what he described as an “Catholic Episcopal Jew” as an adult. The Church Fathers winced, but the people loved it. FDR gave The Little Flower what he wanted for his city because he needed a Republican in his corner, especially one overseeing a Democratic stronghold

The city of New York built its first airfield not on the Hempstead Plains (in fact, none of New York City’s major airports were built on the Hempstead Plains) but on the marshy islands at the extreme western edge of what was then known as Grassy Bay, which were landfilled and attached to the mainland of Brooklyn. 

This railroad map dates from before the creation of Nassau County in 1898. The Hempstead Plains cover most of central Brooklyn and Queens, from Flatlands to past the Suffolk County line where begin the Pine Barrens. For “historical” purposes, the Hempstead Plains are usually considered to make up the heart of Nassau County alone

After World War II, the explosive growth of New York’s suburbs swallowed up most of the natural prairieland on Long Island, especially because the flat lands of Nassau County lent themselves to easy residential development. Today, the native flora and fauna of the Hempstead Plains remains intact only in pockets strewn like an archipelago across the center of the Island

The airport, first named “Barren Island Airport” in the 1920s, started out with one dirt runway, was used by private pilots, and mostly by one vaguely remembered local barnstormer, who made a living taking New Yorkers for dollar airplane rides. As the city filled in the channels between the marsh islands, the airport grew in size and importance, finally being named for famed aviator Floyd Bennett, and opening on June 26, 1930. It replaced Newark Airport in New Jersey as New York City’s official air port.

“Wrong Way” Corrigan claimed to have realized he was lost when he looked down midflight and saw water

Wiley Post used Floyd Bennett Field as his preferred starting point for two ‘round-the-world flights. Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan flew from North America to Europe from Floyd Bennett Field on July 17-18, 1938, feigning shock that he did not arrive in California. (Aviator Howard Hughes, who was planning a Worldflight to take off at the same time, was enraged that Corrigan stole his thunder and the headlines that day.)

A Depression-wracked United States gleefully celebrated Corrigan’s “mistake”

Typically tussocky islands in Jamaica (Grassy) Bay, with a typical New York City skyline in the background (looking across Brooklyn). Note the housing projects and the Empire State Building in the far distance

Floyd Bennett Field in the 1930s

Floyd Bennett Field today. Although no longer a commercial airfield it is used by the New York City Police Department to house its aviation wing. Floyd Bennett Field passed from civilian to military hands during World War II, and functioned as a Naval Air Station well into the 1990s. Now part of Gateway National Recreation Area it contains campgrounds, an aviation museum, and other facilities for the general public

No sooner had Floyd Bennett Field been opened than the city fathers agreed that the airport was too small to serve New York City efficiently, and another site was sought for a larger airport. The decision was eventually taken to use North Field (North Beach Airport) just off Bowery Bay in Queens. Before its conversion to an airfield it had been “Galaland,” an amusement park owned by the Steinway family of piano fame (and of eponymous Steinway Street).

Galaland Amusement Park

North Field / North Beach / Glenn Curtiss Airport in the early 1930s

New York was home to many New Deal construction projects during the depths of the Great Depression. Among them were its parkway and expressway network, its airports, and many of its largest buildings, bridges, and tunnels. The new North Field / New York Municipal Airport is in the foreground

North Field had many competitors for the role of New York City’s next aerodrome. A slew of small and privately owned airports dotted the area right around North Field, including Grand Central Airport, used by Goodyear for its blimps and semirigid airships of the day (the name of which survives in Queens’ Grand Central Parkway under whose concrete lanes the old runways are buried). Grand Central Airport (or “Air Terminal”) was also known as Holmes Airport.  Flushing Airport was also very close by.

Although North Field was known for its “advanced” facilities in the 1930s, “advanced” was a relative term

North Field had two advantages over every other site, First, it was owned by Glenn Curtiss and his family, who made certain that North Field was equipped with the cutting edge technology of the day, and second, it fronted the confluence of the East River and Long Island Sound, allowing for flying boat access.**

The owners of Holmes / Grand Central Airport tried to block the expansion of North Field, but were defeated in court. The costly court battle put the airfield squarely out of business, and allowed North Field to buy parts of the bankrupt property for further development.

A map showing the relative locations of most of the New York City area airports circa 1935. Floyd Bennett Field lies to the southwest, in Brooklyn. Holmes (Grand Central Airport) is directly adjacent to North Field (Glenn Curtiss Field is another name for North Field, which eventually became LaGuardia Airport. Jamaica Sea Airport, serving seaplanes only, was eventually expanded into Idlewild Airport (Now John F. Kennedy International). Flushing Airport, though only a mile from busy LaGuardia, remained busy with small aircraft trafficuntil the mid-1980s when safety concerns about air traffic forced its closure. Roosevelt Field lies to the east. Mitchel Field is unmarked. The yellow areas show dense population

Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was the midwife of the new airport. As Mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945, he was irritated that his flights from Washington D.C. to New York invariably ended up in Newark (New Jersey), despite the fact that his ticket was stamped “New York.” He once demanded that his plane hop from Newark to Floyd Bennett Field so he could actually land in New York, an act that would be seen as skyjacking today. The limited facilities at Floyd Bennett Field were not enough for the great city, it’s Mayor declaimed, and so construction at North Field began within days (paid for by the City of New York, the State of New York, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the Federal Government --- and by Pan American Airways, which wanted a flying boat terminal at North Field.  

New York Municipal Airport in 1939. It was the first airport to boast of a shopping arcade and service providers, including a bank, a beauty salon, a barbershop, and a brokerage office

Landfill was begun atop a tubular steel framework (the framework today interferes with navigational equipment aboard aircraft and the airport posts signs to this effect). Runways were built out into Bowery Bay like so many long fingers. Huge hangars were built, and multiple terminals. American Airlines was coaxed from its lair at Newark to establish its new hub at what was soon called New York Municipal Airport.*** And Pan American built a splendid building for its flying boats which it called the Marine Air Terminal****.

The vast American Airlines hangars at LaGuardia Airport are still New York landmarks

A 1940 photograph of LaGuardia Airport showing the AA hangars and the Marine Air Terminal, complete with a Clipper

LaGuardia Airport today. Crammed onto a shelf projecting out into Bowery Bay, the 70 year old airport is currently being rebuilt. Pilots had taken to calling it the “U.S.S. LaGuardia” because of the aircraft carrier size of its landing fields and the fact that they project out over the water. Distressed jets have occasionally run out of runway and ended up in the drink. The major highway hugging the shore is the Grand Central Parkway. Old Grand Central Airport would have been in the vicinity of the oval

*The title of this post is taken from the poem by Walt Whitman:

STARTING from fish-shape Paumanok, where I was born,       

Well-begotten, and rais’d by a perfect mother;

After roaming many lands—lover of populous pavements;            

Dweller in Mannahatta, my city—or on southern savannas;           

Or a soldier camp’d, or carrying my knapsack and gun—or a miner in California;             

Or rude in my home in Dakota’s woods, my diet meat, my drink from the spring;    

Or withdrawn to muse and meditate in some deep recess,            

Far from the clank of crowds, intervals passing, rapt and happy; 

Aware of the fresh free giver, the flowing Missouri—aware of mighty Niagara;           

Aware of the buffalo herds, grazing the plains—the hirsute and strong-breasted bull;                 

Of earth, rocks, Fifth-month flowers, experienced—stars, rain, snow, my amaze;      

Having studied the mocking-bird’s tones, and the mountainhawk’s,            

And heard at dusk the unrival’d one, the hermit thrush from the swamp-cedars,      

Solitary, singing in the West, I strike up for a New World.

**Mayor LaGuardia, no doubt imagining a New York version of San Francisco’s Treasure Island, wanted to turn square-mile sized Governor’s Island just off the tip of Manhattan into a combination landplane/flying boat/airship port, but he lost that one fight. He disliked the North Field location, complaining that it was too small for a great international airport --- and he was eventually proved right. He would have enjoyed the irony that the airport built there was eventually named for him and him alone in 1953. It was a long way from Galaland, and yet not

***After it was no longer “Galaland” this piece of New York real estate was variously known as North Field, North Beach Field, New York Municipal, New York Municipal-LaGuardia Field, and finally LaGuardia Airport. Once a cutting edge facility, it is considered a rather run-down place today. Delta Air Lines now uses it as a hub, and is closely involved with the ongoing redevelopment of the airport

****By way of full disclosure, this blogger was born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island. As a child, and as one of innumerable denizens of New York City, his family often visited the beach at Jacob Riis Park (now part of Gateway National Recreation Area). The highway to the beach passed directly alongside Floyd Bennett Field, and this blogger can remember seeing aircraft and activity at that very busy military base of the 1960s. Polaris submarine missiles were stockpiled there. Like all traveling New Yorkers this blogger has often used LaGuardia Airport (LGA) and John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK). Until fairly recently, this blogger had no clue as to the mysterious moniker of the "Marine Air Terminal" and its connection to Pan Am's Clippers. That's why this blog exists. To learn something new every day.

This post is for Carol Starcke Giannattasio