Miami’s airport had a different vibe in the 1950s and ’60s. Take a look
Some people call Miami International Airport a city. And other things, too. But it wasn’t always a maze of concourses and parking garages.
Miami’s airport started out as a simple airfield and grew into a simple and intimate place to fly commercial before a building boom in the 1960s and through the continuing growth today.
Yes, there was a time when you could pull right up to the front door of the terminal and park just a few steps away. Try that today, and you might just get a visit from police officers and a tow truck.
Miami’s airport grew along with the surrounding metropolis. Today, you can fly just about anywhere in the world from MIA, and have a four-course dinner and a mojito right before you take off.
But let’s take a look at the old days, when life was captured in black and white and Pan Am, National and Eastern airlines ruled the terminal. And when parking was 25 cents an hour.
We’re taking a trip through the Miami Herald archives to see the airport in the 1950s, ‘60s and early‘70s:
1955: Inside the Miami airport terminal
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1957: Airport expansion under construction
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1958: Airport arrivals and departures
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1959: Scenes from the airport
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1960: In the terminal
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1962: Arriving by air and by car
1963: JFK visits
1965: Busy at the curb
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1966: Air traffic on the rise
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1967: Busy at the airport counter
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1972: In the terminal
