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 'm
not usually one who gets sentimental about buildings or monuments,
but the Reagan National Airport is a great American icon. It is
very good news for the country that this spectacular and stately
airport reopens today. Suddenly the skies seem a lot friendlier
with Reagan National back in business.
My first trip
ever into what was then just "National" airport was probably
not much different than for so many other Americans. It was during
our Saints Faith, Hope, and Charity eighth-grade fieldtrip to Washington
back in 1973. And what I will never forget about that trip (other
than getting nearly sent home by Monsignor Flanigan on the first
night for smuggling beer and cigarettes into our Marriott Hotel
room) was gazing out of the window as we descended into National
on a crystal-clear May evening in 1973. "There is the Washington
Monument!" we all blurted in unison, like a bunch of well-giddy
school children. "I see the Capitol," hollered someone
in the seat behind me. The photos in the civics textbooks just don't
do justice to any of these resolute symbols of freedom.
Over the past
20 years that I have now lived and worked in Washington I would
venture to guess that I have flown into National perhaps 250 times.
I'll be damned if I don't still get the same goose bumps staring
out the window at those magnificent and muscular marble monuments
that I did some 25 years ago. It's just the best way to capture
the grandeur of our capital city unless you have the money to rent
a hot-air balloon and float down Pennsylvania Ave.
Now I have
to confess that I also love National for purely selfish reasons.
Has there ever been a more convenient airport to any city in the
world? I mean really? Before September 11th, I could leave my office
at 18th and K and be aboard a shuttle to New York in 23 minutes
— if it wasn't rush hour. It practically takes 23 minutes to
take those blasted shuttle trains just to get to your gate at Dulles
Airport. And from now on, alas, it will take 23 minutes just to
get through the lengthy security lines and the metal detectors.
At New York's LaGuardia it can take 23 minutes just to wait for
a cab.
The design
of National airport is superb in every regard. Its glass and stone
façade with high curving ceilings are like those of a cathedral.
It is spanking clean. It is comfortable. It seems — and what
a novel idea — designed to maximize the satisfaction of its
customers. One reason the airport is back in business is that members
of Congress, who appropriate funds to help pay the airport's bills,
are heavy users — and they were no more thrilled about the
prospect of flying out of Baltimore than I was.
Despite servicing
hundreds of flights a day, National is easily the least congested
and least claustrophobic airport on the east coast. This is no small
point: There is plenty of parking in the nearby garage, meaning
that you don't have to take a shuttle bus from some remote "satellite"
lot three miles away from the terminals. Every departure gate is
easily accessible in about six or seven minutes walking time. At
DFW in Dallas or Chicago's O'Hare, you could run a marathon in the
terminals and still not arrive at your departure gate.
The security
concern over National Airport's proximity to downtown Washington,
the White House, the Capitol, and the Pentagon is admittedly no
small problem. The Defense Department would have less than ten seconds
to distinguish between a plane descending into the airport runway
and one crashing as a missile into the Pentagon. But this closeness
to D.C. is also its great attraction. The new-style mega-airports
sprouting up around the country seem to be built with the intention
of milking out-of-towners with the maximum cab fare possible. The
new Denver airport is an abomination in this regard. You drive 15
miles just to get close to civilization and another 15 to get into
downtown Denver. By contrast, I feel almost sorry for the immigrant
D.C. cabbies who wait in line for an hour or two for passengers
at National and then often get rewarded with a puny $16 fare.
It makes great
sense that private jets will no longer be serviced in and out of
National. The landing slots are so valuable, it was sheer idiocy
to allow Cessna's to fly in and out with three or four fat-cat passengers,
thus bumping out of the queue jumbo jets with 200 passengers. It's
high time that our airports charged competitive market rates and
peak-hour pricing for landing slots.
Kudos to George
W. Bush for reopening National — albeit on a much slimmed-down
flight schedule. Bush was right to proclaim that by opening up Reagan
National for business again, we say to the terrorists: You bastards
failed. We're all systems go. (Here I'm paraphrasing the president,
of course.)
A great city
deserves — no, it needs — a great airport. It's the world's
window to the city. (When you arrive at the dilapidated airport
in Detroit you just somehow get the sense you're in a city that
you don't want to stay too long in.) Reagan National is as much
a monument to Washington, D.C. as is the Jefferson or Lincoln Memorial
or the Kennedy Center. It should remain open for at least another
100 years.
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