Construction
Hoover Field was built in 1925 by Thomas E. Mitten, president of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (which held the airmail contract between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia). Hell's Bottom, a 37.5-acre (15.2 ha) site at the foot of the Highway Bridge in Arlington County, Virginia (formerly a horse racing track) directly across the Potomac River from the city, was selected by Mitten for the site of his new "airport." Pioneering aviatrix Alys McKey Bryant helped clear trees and brush and run the tractor which leveled the land for the airfield. The single sod runway was 2,400 feet (730 m) long. A single hangar, 60 feet (18 m) by 100 feet (30 m) in size, was constructed. Construction ended in 1925, and at first the field was used only by planes giving sight-seeing tours over the national capital.
The then-unnamed airfield was threatened with competition almost immediately. Because the field was privately owned, civic leaders began a campaign for the city of Washington to build a publicly owned municipal airport. The federal government considered filling in all or part of Kingman Lake and using the lake, Kingman Island, and nearby Heritage Island for a federal airport to compete with the nascent field in Arlington, but this plan died in August 1926. The government's actions and Mitten's desire to fly people between D.C. and Philadelphia for the 150th anniversay of the Declaration of Independence led Mitten to expand his airfield. The new airfield was dedicated on July 16, 1926. It was named for then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, a major promoter of civil aviation.
The roughly trapezoidal airport was built along a north-by-northeast axis, was approximately 2,500 feet (760 m) long and 600 feet (180 m) wide, and 37.35 acres (15.12 ha) in size. The only navigational aid was a windsock.
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He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
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—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)