Meigs Field
Merrill C. Meigs Field Airport | |
|---|---|
Meigs Field Airport alongside Burnham Harbor in 2002, a year before its demolition | |
| Summary | |
| Airport type | Public |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois |
| Opened | December 10, 1948 |
| Closed | March 30, 2003 |
| Coordinates | 41°51′36″N 087°36′31″W / 41.86000°N 87.60861°W |
| Map | |
Merrill C. Meigs Field Airport (pronounced /mɛgz/, formerly ICAO: KCGX, FAA LID: CGX) was a single-runway airport in Chicago, named for newspaper publisher and aviation enthusiast Merrill C. Meigs. It was located on Northerly Island, an artificial peninsula in Lake Michigan, and was operational from 1948 to 2003.
Constructed to accommodate demand for general aviation following World War II, Meigs Field also served regional commercial air travel. With its proximity to downtown Chicago, it quickly became the busiest single-strip airport in the United States, adding an air traffic tower in 1952, and a terminal in 1961. It became widely familiar when it was featured as the default airport in early versions of the Microsoft Flight Simulator software. Seeking to repurpose the land as a park, mayor Richard M. Daley forced its abrupt closure in 2003 by ordering the overnight destruction of its runway.