Newark opened October 1, 1928 on 68 acres (28 ha) of reclaimed land along the Passaic River,[4] the first major airport serving passengers in the New York metro area.[9] The Art Deco Newark Metropolitan Airport Administration Building, adorned with murals by Arshile Gorky,[10] was built in 1934 and dedicated by Amelia Earhart in 1935.[11] It served as the terminal until the opening of the North Terminal in 1953. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and is now a museum and Port Authority Police headquarters.
Newark was the busiest commercial airport in the world until LaGuardia Airport opened in December 1939; the March 1939 Official Aviation Guide shows 61 weekday departures on five airlines, but by mid-1940 passenger airlines had all left Newark.[12][13]
During World War II the field closed to commercial aviation while it was taken over by theUnited States Army for logistics operations. In 1945 captured German aircraft brought from Europe on HMS Reaper for evaluation under Operation Lusty were off-loaded at Newark AAF and then flown or shipped to Freeman Field, Indiana or Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. The airlines returned to Newark in February 1946 and the Port Authority of New York and New Jerseyassumed control of the airport in 1948, later building new hangars, a new terminal and runway 4/22.
The February 1947 C&GS diagram shows 5940-ft runway 1, 7900-ft runway 6 and 7100-ft runway 10.
On December 16, 1951 a Miami Airlines C-46 bound for Tampa lost a cylinder on takeoff from runway 28 and crashed in Elizabeth killing 56.[14] On January 22, 1952 an American Airlines CV-240 crashed in Elizabeth, while on approach to runway 6 killing all 23 aboard and seven on the ground.[15] On February 11, 1952 a National DC-6 crashed in Elizabeth after takeoff from runway 24, killing 29 of 63 on board and four on the ground.[16] Inevitably, the airport was closed for some months; airline traffic resumed later in the year, but the airport's continued unpopularity and the New York area's growing air traffic led to searches for new airport sites. A proposal to build a new airport at what is now the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was defeated by local opposition.
The April 1957 Official Airline Guide showed 144 weekday passenger fixed-wing departures from Newark: 40 Eastern, 19 Capital, 16 American, 14 United, 14 Mohawk, 13 Allegheny, 11 TWA, 8 National, 5 Delta and 4 Braniff. National had a nonstop to Miami, Eastern had nonstops to Miami, New Orleans and Houston, Braniff had a nonstop DC-7C to Dallas and TWA flew nonstop to St Louis; no other nonstops to points west of St. Louis and no international nonstops.[17] (Eastern started a nonstop to Montreal in 1958, probably Newark's first scheduled international nonstop since 1939, though Eastern had nonstops to San Juan in 1951.) Jet airliners arrived in 1961. In 1964, American and TWA started flying nonstop to California, although Newark's longest runway remained only 7,000 ft (2,100 m) until 1970. TWA's 707 nonstop to Heathrow in 1978 was probably Newark's first trans-Atlantic nonstop.
Renaming and late 20th century[edit]
In the 1970s, the airport became Newark International Airport. Present Terminals A and B opened in 1973, although some charter and international flights requiring customs clearance remained at the North Terminal. The main building of Terminal C was completed at the same time, but only metal framing work was completed for the terminal's satellites. It lay dormant until the mid-1980s, when for a brief time the west third of the terminal was equipped for international arrivals and used for some People Expresstranscontinental flights. Terminal C was finally completed and opened in June 1988.
Underutilized through the 1970s, Newark expanded dramatically in the 1980s. People Express struck a deal with the Port Authority to use the North Terminal as both its air terminal and corporate office in 1981 and began operations at Newark that