Washington Dulles International Airport
Dulles · United States · America/New_York
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Airport HistoryEst. 1962
Dulles Airport opened on 17 November 1962 on farmland in Virginia's Loudoun and Fairfax counties, dedicated in person by President John F. Kennedy as the first airport in the United States purpose-built for the jet age and named after former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Its Main Terminal, designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, is considered one of the masterpieces of mid-century modern architecture, with a swooping suspended roof that Saarinen himself called 'the best thing I have ever done.' The airport pioneered the use of distinctive 'mobile lounges' — large motorized cabins built by Chrysler and the Budd Company — to ferry passengers directly from the terminal to aircraft parked on the open apron, a system still in limited use today. Since 1987, it has been operated under long-term federal lease by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, alongside Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The federal government selected a site roughly 26 miles from downtown Washington, D.C. for a new jet-age airport, with Eero Saarinen commissioned to design the Main Terminal.
President John F. Kennedy formally dedicated Dulles International Airport on 17 November 1962, with an Eastern Air Lines flight from Newark becoming the first commercial arrival; the Main Terminal's dramatic catenary-curve roof was widely hailed as an architectural landmark.
The American Institute of Architects presented Saarinen's Main Terminal with a First Honor Award, cementing its reputation as one of the era's defining pieces of airport architecture.
The federal government leased Dulles and Washington National airports to the newly created Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority for long-term independent operation.
Concourse B opened as the airport's first permanent midfield concourse, part of a long-running effort to reduce reliance on the mobile-lounge system.
An underground automated AeroTrain system opened to move passengers between the Main Terminal and midfield concourses, further reducing dependence on the original mobile lounges.
Compiled from flydulles.com's official history page, Wikipedia, and Washington Post/Atlas Obscura coverage of the mobile lounge system; the site-selection year is approximate based on general federal planning timelines.