Newark Airport: Christmas Trees, Bank Safes and the 1952 Elizabeth Crashes

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Newark Metropolitan Airport opened in October 1928 on 68 acres of marshland, pushed by Mayor Thomas Raymond. To support the first paved runway in the country, builders hauled in 6.7 million cubic yards of earth, 7,000 discarded Christmas trees and 200 bank safes donated by a junk vendor, making Newark the first commercial airport in the United States. In 1930 it added the nation's first air traffic control tower and an airport weather station, and its 1934 Art Deco administration building, dedicated by Amelia Earhart in 1935, housed the country's first passenger terminal. Critics faulted the mixing of arriving and departing passengers and the lack of room to grow, and when the airline leases ran out, United, American, Eastern and TWA moved to the new LaGuardia; by mid-1940 every passenger airline had left.

The Army took over during World War II and made Newark headquarters of the Atlantic Overseas Air Service Command, and in 1945 captured German aircraft arrived aboard HMS Reaper under Operation Lusty. The Port Authority leased the airport in 1948. Between December 1951 and February 1952, three airliners crashed into Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Newark closed until November 1952, reopening with a new runway angled over Newark Bay and the Arthur Kill and the first high-intensity runway edge lights. United Airlines Flight 93 departed from gate A-17 on September 11, 2001; the airport was renamed Newark Liberty International in 2002, and the gate sign was donated to the Flight 93 National Memorial in 2025.

• The three Elizabeth crashes killed 56 people; 23 on board and seven on the ground; and 29 on board and four on the ground.
• People Express moved into the Old North Terminal in 1981, and Virgin Atlantic began Newark to London flights in 1984.
• Singapore Airlines began what was then the world's longest nonstop flight, Newark to Singapore, in 2018.
• The $2.7 billion, 33-gate Terminal A opened in late 2022 with a five-megawatt garage solar roof of more than 12,000 panels.
• The code is EWR because NEW belonged to Lakefront Airport in New Orleans and the Navy reserved codes starting with N.