Qualla: BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport

BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport: Introduction

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0. On May 2, 1947, ground was broken in Anne Arundel County, Maryland for what would become the largest airport between Washington and Philadelphia. The land had belonged to Friendship Methodist Church, which had served the surrounding farming community since 1851. The church held its final service on Easter Sunday 1948. The building was razed. The bodies of 170 people in its cemetery were exhumed and reinterred elsewhere. Baltimore-Fort Meade Road was rerouted west to make way for the runways. Friendship International Airport opened on June 24, 1950, dedicated by President Harry Truman, who arrived in his Douglas DC-6 from Washington National. Seven minutes later, the same aircraft made the airport's first departure. Today the field is known as Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Renamed in 1973 for the broader market it serves, renamed again in 2005 to honor a Baltimore-born Supreme Court Justice, it carries more passengers than either Dulles or Reagan National in most years.

Image: Quintin Soloviev | CC BY 4.0

BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport: The Church and the Runway

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, National Aeronautical Navigation Services, Public domain. Friendship Methodist Church gave the airport its first name and most of its land. The Baltimore Aviation Commission picked the 2,100-acre site near Linthicum Heights in 1944, the year before the war ended. The city of Baltimore purchased the church property in 1946 and the surrou...

Image: US Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, National Aeronautical Navigation Services | Public domain

BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport: Thurgood Marshall's Name

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Doc Searls from Santa Barbara, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. On October 1, 2005, the airport was renamed for Thurgood Marshall, the Baltimore-born civil rights lawyer who argued Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court in 1954 and became the first African American justice on that court in 1967. Marshall grew up at 1632 Division...

Image: Doc Searls from Santa Barbara, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport: Southwest's Eastern Capital

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Edward Russell from Washington, DC, USA, CC BY 2.0. Southwest Airlines arrived at BWI in September 1993 and never really left. By 2011 the carrier was moving 56 percent of the airport's passengers. The original concourses A and B were expanded, renovated, and combined into a single Southwest facility that opened on May 22, 2005, d...

Image: Edward Russell from Washington, DC, USA | CC BY 2.0

BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport: First Airport with a Train Station

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1980 BWI became the first airport in the United States with a dedicated intercity rail station. The BWI Rail Station, located about a mile from the terminal and connected by a free shuttle, sits on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and is served by Amtrak, Acela, and Maryland's MARC...

Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport: One Strange Day in 1974

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Junglerot56, Public domain. On February 22, 1974, a man named Samuel Byck walked into BWI and shot and killed an aviation police officer at the security checkpoint. He boarded Delta Flight 523, killed the first officer, and severely wounded the captain. He intended to commandeer the plane and crash it into ...

Image: Junglerot56 | Public domain