Day 855

Miller Field

May 3rd, 2014



This former Army airfield, established just after World War I, is now part of Gateway National Recreation Area. Most of the property is currently covered with athletic fields, but the building above, erected in 1920 as a double seaplane hangar, serves as a reminder of the site's aviatic past. At right is the old Elm Tree Lighthouse, a namesake of the original nautical beacon that stood in this area: a large elm tree at the foot of New Dorp Lane that ships used as a navigational landmark. The similar-looking brick pillar is a former parachute drying tower.

I've briefly mentioned Miller Field once before on this blog, by the way, as the site where an airliner hurtled into the ground following a mid-air collision in 1960 — a disaster commonly known as the Park Slope plane crash, named for the residential neighborhood in Brooklyn where the other airliner went down.


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