Chicago O'Hare: Why Orchard Field Is ORD, Split-Finger Gates and Bees

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Chicago O'Hare's ORD code comes from Orchard Place, a German-American farming community that became a 2 million square foot Douglas plant during World War II. It built 655 C-54 Skymasters, more than half of all produced, and its test airfield was known as Orchard Field. In 1949 the city renamed it for Edward Butch O'Hare, the Navy's first flying ace and a Medal of Honor recipient, but IATA kept ORD. Planner Ralph H. Burke introduced split-finger concourses, separate arrival and departure roads and underground fueling, and O'Hare hosted the world's first jet bridge in 1958. Midway's one square mile could not handle Boeing 707s, and by July 1962 the last scheduled fixed-wing flight left Midway.

O'Hare was the world's busiest airport from 1963 to 1998, and in 2025 it handled over 84 million passengers and 857,392 aircraft movements on eight runways. After deregulation, United (47.1 percent) and American (33.1 percent) won the hub battle as TWA, Northwest and Delta pulled back. Crossing runways caused chronic delays until the $6.6 billion O'Hare Modernization Plan, begun in 2001, moved to six parallel runways. Expansion forced St. Johannes Cemetery to relocate, while Resthaven Cemetery remains beside the FedEx facility. The $8.5 billion O'Hare 21 plan replaces Terminal 2 with a Global Terminal designed by Jeanne Gang, reaching a compromise with the airlines in May 2024.

• Helmut Jahn designed United's Terminal 1, whose B-C tunnel features Michael Hayden's neon Sky's the Limit and Rhapsody in Blue.
• Runways were built with slip-form paving developed for the interstate highways.
• Since 2011 an apiary of up to 75 hives has been tended by former offenders from North Lawndale, selling goods under the Bee Love brand.
• After the April 2017 removal of Dr. David Dao from a United Express flight, aviation police lost their police titles and were disarmed.
• O'Hare 21 aims to raise gate count from 185 to about 235.