page_title: Nashville International Airport
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Nashville International Airport / History / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Original administration building at Berry Field Nashville Airport.
context_page_description: Nashville International Airport is a public/military airport in the southeastern section of Nashville, Tennessee. Established in 1937, its original name was Berry Field, from which its ICAO and IATA identifiers are derived. The current terminal was built in 1987, and the airport took its current name in 1988. Nashville International Airport has four runways and covers 3,900 acres.
  The airport is served by 16 airlines and has 585 daily arriving and departing flights with nonstop flights to more than 72 cities in North America and Europe. Berry Field Air National Guard Base is located at Nashville International Airport. The base is home to the 118th Airlift Wing and is the headquarters of the Tennessee Air National Guard.
context_section_description: Nashville's first airport was Hampton Field, which operated until 1921. It was replaced by Blackwood Field in the Hermitage community, which operated between 1921 and 1928. The first airlines to serve Nashville, American Airlines and Eastern Air Lines, flew out of Sky Harbor Airport in nearby Rutherford County.
  By 1935 the need for an airport larger and closer to the city than Sky Harbor Airport was realized and a citizens' committee was organized by mayor Hilary Howse to choose a location.  A 340-acre (1.4 km²) plot along Dixie Parkway (now Murfreesboro Road) composed of four farms was selected, and construction began in 1936 as one of the first major Works Progress Administration projects in the area. The airport was dedicated on November 1, 1936, as Berry Field, named after Col. Harry S. Berry, the Tennessee administrator for the Works Progress Administration. It opened in June 1937 with much fanfare, including parades, an air show, and an aerial bombardment display by the 105th Aero Squadron, which was based at the field. Passenger service began in mid-July through American Airlines and Eastern Airlines, both of which operated Douglas DC-3s. The new airport had three asphalt runways, a three-story passenger terminal, a control tower, two hangars and a beacon, and was built at a cost of $1.2 million. In its first year Berry Field served 189,000 passengers.
   During World War II, the airfield was requisitioned by the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command as the headquarters for the 4th Ferrying Command for movement of new aircraft overseas. During this time, the Federal government expanded the airport to 1,500 acres (6.1 km²).  At the end of the war, the airport was returned to the control of the city, with a number of facilities remaining for support of the tenant unit of the Tennessee National Guard.
  The airport had been enlarged by the military during World War II, but in 1958 the City Aviation Department started planning to expand and modernize the airport. The first scheduled jets were American 720/720Bs in 1961, the same year a new 145,000 square feet (13,500 m²) terminal opened off of Briley Parkway, west of runway 2L. For the first time more than half a million people passed through the airport when the six airlines that served Nashville carried 532,790 passengers. These renovations also included expansion of an existing runway, with 2L/20R being extended by 600 feet (180 m), and the construction of a new crosswind runway, 13/31. In 1962 Nashville became the first municipal airport in the United States with a public reading room when the Nashville Public Library opened a branch inside the terminal.
caption: Eastward view of Berry Field's original administration building
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