• Partial, diagonal view of the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The building has panels stacked on top of each other.
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    Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Virginia, United States (DCA/KDCA)
    President Franklin Roosevelt in 1938 chose Gravelly Point on the Potomac River as the site of a new airport for the nation's capital. Washington National Airport opened in June 1941. In 1997 a new tower was built in a post-modernist style. Designed by César Pelli and Associates, it stands 61 meters (201 feet) tall. It originally had a white dome on top that housed ground-radar equipment. However, buildings in nearby Crystal City, Virginia, caused a radar echo, or "ghost," so the dome was moved to a ground location on the airfield. Congress renamed DCA Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in 1998.

    The photograph is a part of Art of the Airport Tower, an exhibition that explores contemporary and historical air traffic control towers in the U.S. and around the world. 

  • Partial, diagonal view of the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The building has panels stacked on top of each other.

Photographer:

Carolyn Russo

ID#:

WEB14833-2015

Source:

Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum

Copyright:

Smithsonian Institution

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