Qualla: Washington Airport

Washington Airport: Introduction

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Pilots flying into Washington Airport between 1927 and 1941 had three obstacles to dodge on the way down. To the northeast stood Arlington Beach, an amusement park whose roller coaster and Ferris wheel reached high enough to clip a careless approach. To the east, an open landfill burned continuously, sending smoke across the field on any north wind and a notorious stench across the Potomac into Washington. To the south, the unpaved runways - oiled earth, not asphalt - turned to mud in spring and dust in summer. The High Bridge to Washington, with its overhead trolley wires, crossed the river immediately north of the field. The Mount Vernon Memorial Highway ran along the western boundary. The airport was small, dangerous, and successful enough to become the second commercial airfield serving the nation's capital. It existed where the Pentagon's south parking lot now sits.

Read more: Washington Airport on Qualla

Washington Airport: Hoover Field and the Need for a Second

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The first Washington airport was Hoover Field, a private airfield built in 1925 just south of the District line in Arlington, Virginia. It was named for Herbert Hoover - then Secretary of Commerce, not yet president - and was operated by a small group of investors as a base for s...

Read more: Washington Airport on Qualla

Washington Airport: The Burning Dump

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Both airports had the same essential problems. The runways were unpaved. Crosswinds funneled down the Potomac at takeoff height. The High Bridge's trolley wires made northern approaches dangerous. Most critically, the city of Arlington's municipal landfill sat immediately east of...

Read more: Washington Airport on Qualla

Washington Airport: Hoover's Proposal

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Washington Airport grew. In April 1928, the field was enlarged by tens of thousands of cubic yards of fill dirt excavated during the construction of the Federal Triangle complex in downtown Washington. The Potomac shoreline was reshaped to accommodate the additional acreage. By 1...

Read more: Washington Airport on Qualla

Washington Airport: Washington-Hoover and the Pentagon

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1933 the Ludington brothers - Nicholas S. and Charles Townsend Ludington, Pennsylvania aviation investors who had just sold their successful Ludington Airlines (where Amelia Earhart had served as vice president) to Eastern Air Transport - bought Hoover Field at auction in July...

Read more: Washington Airport on Qualla

Washington Airport: What Remains

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Nothing of Washington Airport survives. The field has been buried under Pentagon south parking lots, Metrobus bays, and the Interstate 395 ramps that handle traffic between Virginia and the Fourteenth Street Bridge. The original runway alignment, however, can be traced by looking...

Read more: Washington Airport on Qualla