LaGuardia Airport's Marine Air Terminal Preserves a Proud Aviation Past

Designed by William Delano and built in 1939, LaGuardia Airport’s Marine Air Terminal is one of two passenger terminals remaining from the first generation of USA air travel, dating back to the airport’s first days. (The other belongs to American Airlines.) LGA opened in October 1939 and the Marine Air Terminal was dedicated the following March, serving Pan American’s magnificent Yankee Clipper aircraft, seaplanes known as “flying boats.” Today it serves commuter airlines including the Delta Water Shuttle (a ferry service), air taxis, and a private weather station.

Among the Marine Air terminal’s most distinguishing elements is its frieze of terracotta flying fish along the roofline. They represent the Pan Am “flying boats” the terminal originally serviced.

The 12-foot-high, 235-foot-long mural “Flight” by James Brooks was restored in the mid-1980s. The mural encircling the interior wall of the terminal’s rotunda tells the story of human flight, from Greek mythology through the mid-20th century, and was the largest and last mural commissioned by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. Incredibly, and unconscionably, the mural had been covered over in the 1950s, apparently because some commissioner thought it resembled a communist propaganda poster. Fortunately, the mural had been left intact and it was once again revealed during renovations of the terminal in the 1980s.

Though the terminal’s circular check-in desk is no longer a feature, the central rotunda features a bust of Fiorello LaGuardia, and vintage wood benches sporting a propeller design do survive.

The Marine Air Terminal’s cafeteria is open to the public, offering basic lunchtime fare in a clean, no-nonsense setting. The terminal is a short walk or drive from the LaGuardia Airport entrance on Ditmars Boulevard and 82nd Street — parking is ample.

Kevin Walsh’s website is Forgotten New York