- City:
- San Francisco, CA
- Site Type:
- Infrastructure and Utilities, Airports
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works Funding, Work Relief Programs, Public Works Administration (PWA), Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- Yes
Description
The airport first opened in 1927 as Mills Field Municipal Airport. It became San Francisco Municipal Airport in 1931, and SF International Airport in 1955. Both the WPA and the PWA were heavily involved in airport construction and expansion:
“[The WPA] Improved the airport by grading, draining, paving and lighting, installing water, gas, electricity, telephone and sewers; building walks, curbs, pavements, new buildings; dredging for seaplane harbor; building seaplane wharves, ramp and seawalls, rock and earth levees and work incidental to making a first class seaplane port.” –Healy, p. 70.
As of 1936, over $1,800,000 had been expended by the WPA. The reclamation of tideland in the San Francisco Bay was financed by a PWA bond issue of $260,000.
Note the varying stages of development and land reclamation in the photos below.
The present airport museum is a replica of the airport waiting room pictured below.
Source notes
Healy, Clyde E. San Francisco Improved: Report of Clyde E. Healy, Assistant City Engineer - City of San Francisco and Coordinator of W.P.A. Projects, Period October 10, 1935 to August 31, 1939. San Francisco : [s.n.]., 1939. United States. Work Projects Administration (Calif.) Report on Progress of the Works Program in San Francisco. January, 1938. Works Progress Administration / William Mooser, Jr., branch manager. [San Francisco? 1938] The Architect and Engineer. September 1937. Information about waiting room submitted by James Clifford.Site Details
| Total Cost |
|---|
| $2,171,947.00 |
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