Charles Lindbergh and Roosevelt Field
On May 20, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh took off in The Spirit of St. Louis from Roosevelt Field, as he embarked on the first non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
Flying northeast along the coast, he was sighted later in the day flying over Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. From St. Johns, Newfoundland, he headed out over the Atlantic, using only a magnetic compass, his airspeed indicator, and luck to navigate toward Ireland. Citizens waited nervously by their radios, listening for news about the flight. When Lindbergh was seen crossing the Irish coast, the world cheered and eagerly anticipated his arrival in Paris. A frenzied crowd of more than 100,000 people gathered at Le Bourget Field in Paris to greet him on May 21st. He had flown more than 3,600 miles in 33 1/2 hours.
Roosevelt Field was later used by the Navy and Army during World War II. After the war, Roosevelt Field reverted to a commercial airport until it closed on May 31, 1951. Manhattan-based real estate company Webb and Knapp gained a controlling interest of the airfield in 1950. They later built light factories on it. Currently the site is occupied by the Roosevelt Field Mall and Garden City Plaza.
