Coordinates: 38°51′08″N 077°02′16″W / 38.85222°N 77.03778°W / 38.85222; -77.03778
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (IATA: DCA , ICAO: KDCA , FAA LID: DCA ) is a public airport located three miles (5 km) south of the central business district of Washington, D.C., in Arlington County, Virginia, United States. It is the nearest commercial airport to Washington, D.C. Originally named Washington National Airport , the facility was renamed to honor former President Ronald Reagan in 1998. The airport is commonly known as "National", "Washington National", "Reagan", and "Reagan National". "DCA" is used as the main airport code.
The airport is a focus city for US Airways, also the airport's largest carrier. The US Airways Shuttle offers near-hourly air shuttle service to LaGuardia Airport in New York City and Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. Delta Air Lines' Delta Shuttle also offers near-hourly air shuttle service to LaGuardia. With a handful of exceptions, flights are restricted to destinations within 1,250 miles (2,012 km), in an effort to control aviation noise and to drive air traffic to the larger but more distant Washington Dulles International Airport. In 2006, the airport served approximately 18.5 million passengers. Because the airport only provides U.S. immigration and customs facilities for corporate jet traffic, the only international flights allowed to land at DCA are those from airports with U.S. Customs and Border Protection preclearance, which include Nassau, Bahamas; Bermuda (seasonal); and most major airports in eastern Canada.
History
Washington National Airport was built by the federal government in 1940–41 by John McShain on mudflats alongside the Potomac River at Gravelly Point, immediately south of Washington, D.C, and roughly four miles from the United States Capitol.
Prior uses
In 1746 Captain John Alexander built a mansion, Abingdon, on the site. A descendent, Philip Alexander, donated most of the land on which the City of Alexandria was built, and it was so named in his honor. Abingdon Mansion was purchased in 1778 by John Parke Custis and was the birthplace of Eleanor "Nelly" Parke Custis, step-granddaughter of President George Washington. Abingdon was destroyed by fire in 1930. In 1998, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority preserved the site and housed artifacts found there in the Exhibit Hall, located in Terminal A.
Founding and construction
Airport facilities in Washington, D.C. were seriously inadequate throughout the early 20th century. Hoover Field, located near the present site of the Pentagon, was the first major terminal to be developed in the Capital area, opening its doors in 1926. The facility's single runway was intersected by a local street; guards had to stop automobile traffic during takeoffs and landings.
The following year, Washington Airport, another privately operated field, began service next door. In 1930, the economics of the Great Depression caused the two terminals to merge to form Washington-Hoover Airport. Bordered on the east by US-1, with its accompanying high-tension electrical wires, and obstructed by a high smokestack on one approach and a dump nearby, the field was less than adequate.
Although the need for a better airport was acknowledged in 37 studies conducted between 1926 and 1938, there was a statutory prohibition against federal development of airports. When Congress lifted the prohibition in 1938, President Franklin Roosevelt made a recess appropriation of $15 million to build National Airport by reallocating funds from other purposes. Although Congress later challenged the legality of this move, construction of the new airport continued.
Washington National Airport opened its doors on June 16, 1941. Though located on the Virginia side of the Potomac, much of the site had originally been underwater, in District of Columbia territory. A 1945 law established the airport as legally within Virginia but under the jurisdiction of Congress.
Expansion
Rapid growth in air traffic led to the construction of runway extensions in 1950 and 1955. The runway layout — limited due to the location and orientation of the airport — has otherwise changed little, except for the 1956 closure of a fourth, east-west runway now used for taxiing and aircraft parking. The terminal building was supplemented by the completion of the North Terminal in 1958; the two were connected in 1961.
Despite the expansions, several efforts have been made to restrict the growth of the airport. The advent of jet aircraft as well as traffic growth led Congress to pass the Washington Airport Act of 1950, which resulted in the opening of Dulles Airport in 1962. Concerns about aviation noise led to the imposition of noise restrictions even before jet service began in 1966. To reduce congestion and drive traffic to alternative airports, the Federal Aviation Administration imposed landing slot and perimeter restrictions on National and four other high-density airports in 1969.
Service to the airport's dedicated Metro station began in 1977. The station was sited based on the planned location of terminals B and C, separate from the main terminal, and is today connected to terminals B and C via pedestrian bridges.
Major crash: Air Florida Flight 90
Main article: Air Florida Flight 90On the afternoon of January 13, 1982, following a period of exceptionally cold weather and a morning of blizzard conditions, Air Florida Flight 90 crashed after waiting forty-nine minutes on a taxiway and taking off with ice and snow on the wings. The Boeing 737 aircraft failed to gain altitude. Less than a mile from the end of the runway, the airplane struck the 14th Street Bridge complex, shearing the tops off vehicles stuck in traffic before plunging through the one-inch thick ice covering the Potomac River. Rescue responses were greatly hampered by the weather and traffic. Due to heroic action on the part of motorists, a United States Park Service police helicopter crew, and one of the plane's passengers who later perished, five occupants of the downed plane survived. The other 74 people who had been aboard died, as well as four occupants of vehicles on the bridge. President Reagan cited motorist Lenny Skutnik in his State of the Union Address later that year.
Renaming
The federal government relinquished control of Dulles and National Airports in 1987, when President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating the independent Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. However, Congress has continued to intervene in the management of the airports. On February 6, 1998, President Bill Clinton signed legislation changing the airport's name from Washington National Airport to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, to honor the former president on his 87th birthday. The legislation, passed by Congress in 1998, was drafted against the wishes of MWAA officials and political leaders in Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. Opponents of the renaming argued that a large federal office building had already been named for Reagan, that the airport was already named for a United States President (George Washington). The bill expressly stated that it did not require the expenditure of any funds to accomplish the name change.
Construction of current terminal buildings
In 1984, Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole appointed a commission to study transferring National and Dulles Airports from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to a local entity, which could use airport revenues to finance improvements. The commission recommended that one multi-state agency administer both Dulles and National, over the alternative of having Virginia control Dulles and the District of Columbia control National. In 1986, Congress transferred control of the airport from the FAA to the new Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), with MWAA's decisions subject to a Congressional review panel. The constitutionality of the review panel was then challenged in the court, which held up all construction projects while the litigation was pending. The Supreme Court has twice declared the oversight panel unconstitutional.
With the addition of more flights and limited space in the aging main terminal, the airport began an extensive renovation and expansion in the 1990s. Hangar 11 on the northern end of the airport was converted into an interim terminal for US Airways and Delta Air Lines in 1989, freeing up several gates in the main terminal until the new $450 million terminal complex became operational. On July 27, 1997, the new terminal complex, consisting of terminals B and C and two parking garages, opened. Argentine architect César Pelli designed the new terminals of the airport. The interim terminal closed immediately after the opening and was converted back into a hangar. One pier of the main terminal (now Terminal A), which mainly housed American Airlines, was demolished; the other pier remains operational today as gates 1–9.
Before 1999, Runway
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