2. There was a Flushing Airport in College Point where Goodyear blimps landed
For 55 years, College Point hosted one of New York City’s busiest airfields and a bustling airport. Today, most of the former property sits deserted, with many development proposals falling flat. Construction began in 1927 on top of 250 acres of wetlands, opening in 1929 and quickly becoming one of the central travel hubs of New York City. Speed’s Airport, as it was called, was one of the area’s go-to airports in the 1930s before LaGuardia Airport opened in 1939; into the 1940 and 1950s, Speed’s was a significant rival to the other Queens-based airport. Speed’s mostly served smaller planes and helicopters, and even a Goodyear blimp would make stops here.
In 1977, the airport’s reputation was damaged when a Piper Twin Comanche crashed after taking off, killing everyone on board. Poor infrastructure, which would cause frequent flooding, alongside the growth of LaGuardia, forced Flushing Airport to close in 1984. There have been few efforts to save the original structures, and many became abandoned; the land even became wetlands again. A few companies and organizations have advocated for restoring some of the property, including converting the airport into a blimp port, though many of the hangars were recently demolished. Fears of traffic increases have motivated the rejection of plans to revitalize the area. Mayor Bloomberg even tried making this into a park in 2013, though locals thought the location of the would-be park was inconvenient.