IT’S been years since I’ve been on an airplane. I last flew in 2008, to spend a week in San Francisco. I had a ball climbing up the steep hills and checking out the buildings and infrastructure and caught both a Giants and A’s game, as it marked my one and only appearance in both San Fran and Oakland. As always happens when I am out of town, though, I had difficulty sleeping in a bed not my own and had virtually no winks the first three nights; even doses of Benadryl weren’t enough to knock me out. Despite that I was stoked and had all the energy in the world. Except, of course, on the bus heading for Marin County to see the redwoods, I nodded off as we were on the Golden Gate Bridge and missed most of the passage. Will 2024 be the year? After years of having either no money or time, I may have both and may be able to do some traveling, we’ll see.
Since I haven’t flown I haven’t been in JFK Airport…with one exception. A few years ago I visited the Eero Saarinen TWA terminal, which I must have seen previously as a lad of 4 in 1962 when the family flew out to LA to visit relations. I didn’t recall anything of the terminal, though. On subsequent JFK visits, I marveled at the swan-shaped lampposts, which came in single and twin versions. By the 1970s (left) their original fixtures had been replaced by GE M400s, second versions with the photocell at the rear, which dominated NYC streets for a couple of decades.
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On a news report today, I noticed these posts on I-678 Van Wyck Expressway) within the airport, which I have to say are rather echoic of the Swans (which I call the former JFK poles). I’d have to say that the airport installed these poles as a tribute to the originals. What do you think? Comments are open.
Kevin Walsh is the webmaster of the award-winning website Forgotten NY, and the author of the books Forgotten New York (HarperCollins, 2006) and also, with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, Forgotten Queens (Arcadia, 2013)
12/27/23
3 comments
JFK is a living, breathing, modern airport that is constantly being redesigned to meet ever-changing transportation demands. While it would be nice to continue use of existing, historical structures, like the TWA Terminal, it is not always possible. The demolition of the 1955 Our Lady of the Skies Chapel is an unfortunate example of where this was not possible. The original Swan Lamps belong to history. It is a credit to the Port Authority that the new lamps are not some “off-the rack” model, but are original for JFK and that they do provide a homage to the originals.
When visiting JFK Airport, be sure to read the essay about the historic TWA Flight center.
Those lamps, along with the flags of countries, were installed in the early ‘90’s as part of the so called JFK2000 project. The airside and landslide roads were re-configured to meet a projected demand of 47.5 million annual air passengers. There were numerous people
who thought that was a ridiculous number. Many of the Terminals were also modified or re-constructed. Ultimately the growth in air
passengers has far exceeded the level noted. Once again, JFK is in expansion mode. The only constant is change.
The flags on the poles presented a particular challenge in determining the adjacencies. Many countries did not want to be next to
certain others given various geo-political issues. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the American flag was initially produced with the field of stars in the wrong position and had to be re-done.