America adopted the bald eagle as the emblem of the United States of America in 1782. The eagle symbolized strength, beauty, long life, flight, and freedom, characterized by its lofty flight and mountain top nesting. It not surprising then, with these idolized attributes, that the eagle would become an oft-seen decorative feature in architecture and memorial sculpture. In New York, a city that prides itself on its role as a powerful, resilient, and endlessly innovative center of financial, political and cultural life, the eagle has been incorporated into the built environment. Architects, designers, and sculptors have decorated their banks, civic buildings, statues of war heroes, skyscrapers, and airports (of course) with the noble birds. To see them, you usually just need to look up.

New York Municipal Airport, ca. 1939. In the late 1930s the City of New York took over control and renovated and expanded the airport that original occupied the north Queens plot. The original Glenn H. Curtiss Airport (later renamed North Beach Airport) was established in 1929 on land that had previously been an amusement park. The New York Municipal Airport- La Guardia Field (named for the acting mayor), despite being called an expensive folly upon opening, was, within a few years, an extremely successful operation. Patrons to the airports buildings were not only those with tickets to fly but for a dime the general public could watch planes taking off and landing from a crowded observation deck. The pictured building was the main terminal building, topped by a metal eagle, wings open in flight. In 1947 the airport was renamed La Guardia Airport when it came under the control of the Port of New York Authority. The former main terminal still stands and is used for airport administrative functions.