Qualla: Meigs Field https://qualla.com/meigs-field en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/3/w/meigs-field-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Meigs Field https://qualla.com/meigs-field Meigs Field: Introduction https://qualla.com/meigs-field/ Photo credit This image is in the public domain in the United States because it only contains materials that originally came from the United States Geological Survey, an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. For more information, see the official USGS copyright policy., Public domain. Millions of virtual pilots learned to fly at Meigs Field. For years, it was the default starting airport in Microsoft Flight Simulator -- the little lakefront strip where you first lifted off the runway, banked over Lake Michigan, and saw the Chicago skyline fill your screen. But on the night of March 30, 2003, the real Meigs Field ceased to exist. Mayor Richard M. Daley ordered city crews onto Northerly Island under cover of darkness to bulldoze large X-shaped gouges into the runway surface. By morning, several aircraft sat stranded on the ground with no way to take off. 'To do this any other way would have been needlessly contentious,' Daley said at a news conference the next day. Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn called it 'the signature act of Richard Daley's 22 years in office.' The busiest single-strip airport in the United States had been killed in a single night.

Read more: Meigs Field on Qualla

Image: This image is in the public domain in the United States because it only contains materials that originally came from the United States Geological Survey, an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. For more information, see the official USGS copyright policy. | Public domain

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/3/w/meigs-field-wp/dp3w-meigs-field-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Meigs Field: Built on Burnham's Island https://qualla.com/meigs-field/ Photo credit David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA, CC BY 2.0. Northerly Island, where Meigs Field stood, is the only lakefront structure actually built from Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago. Burnham's plan envisioned trees and grass for public enjoyment -- it said nothing about airplanes. Construction of the artificial peninsula began ...

Read more: Meigs Field on Qualla

Image: David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/3/w/meigs-field-wp/dp3w-meigs-field-built-on-burnhams-island.mp3 0:06 2 full Meigs Field: The Busiest Single Strip https://qualla.com/meigs-field/ Photo credit Fritz Geller-Grimm, CC BY-SA 2.5. Meigs Field added an air traffic control tower in 1952 and a terminal in 1961. Its proximity to downtown made it the busiest single-runway airport in the country. Commuter airlines connected it to Springfield, Carbondale, Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and other cities acros...

Read more: Meigs Field on Qualla

Image: Fritz Geller-Grimm | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/3/w/meigs-field-wp/dp3w-meigs-field-the-busiest-single-strip.mp3 0:06 3 full Meigs Field: The Night of the Bulldozers https://qualla.com/meigs-field/ Photo credit LHOON, CC BY-SA 2.0. The battle over Meigs had been simmering for nearly a decade. In 1994, Daley announced plans to close the airport and build a park. The Chicago Park District, which owned Northerly Island, refused to renew the airport's lease in 1996. The city closed Meigs briefly, but pressure f...

Read more: Meigs Field on Qualla

Image: LHOON | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/3/w/meigs-field-wp/dp3w-meigs-field-the-night-of-the-bulldozers.mp3 0:06 4 full Meigs Field: Aftershocks and Legacy https://qualla.com/meigs-field/ Photo credit Peterfitzgerald, CC BY-SA 4.0. The fallout lingered for years. On July 28, 2003, a pilot flying from Maine to the Experimental Aircraft Association convention in Oshkosh made an emergency landing on the grass beside the demolished runway. Daley accused the pilot of trying to 'embarrass' him; the FAA said the p...

Read more: Meigs Field on Qualla

Image: Peterfitzgerald | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/3/w/meigs-field-wp/dp3w-meigs-field-aftershocks-and-legacy.mp3 0:06 5 full Meigs Field: Prairie Grass Where Runways Were https://qualla.com/meigs-field/ Photo credit The original uploader was TonyTheTiger at English Wikipedia. (Original text: en:User:TonyTheTiger), CC BY-SA 3.0. Northerly Island is now a park. Prairie grasses wave where the runway once ran. Strolling paths wind past a pond. The 7,500-seat Huntington Bank Pavilion, a summer concert venue, opened on the site in 2005. A modest beach called 12th Street Beach occupies part of the shoreline. B...

Read more: Meigs Field on Qualla

Image: The original uploader was TonyTheTiger at English Wikipedia. (Original text: en:User:TonyTheTiger) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/3/w/meigs-field-wp/dp3w-meigs-field-prairie-grass-where-runways-were.mp3 0:06 6 full