Midway Airport

The Chicago Municipal Airport at 63rd Street and Cicero Avenue on Chicago's southwest side was dedicated in 1926. It featured cinder runways, boundary lights, a revolving beacon for night landings, and for the next three decades served as Chicago's main airport. In 1949, it was renamed Midway Airport, at which time it was the busiest airport in the world, handling nearly 10 million passengers a year. The rapid growth of commercial jet aviation in the 1950s soon made the airport unable to handle Chicago's flying needs, as the newer and larger jets needed longer runways than Midway's one square mile could provide. Nor could the surrounding area of the airport be expanded due to the commercial and residential build-up around Midway. Chicago O'Hare International Airport was opened for service in 1955, and today is one of the world's busiest airports. Midway Airport still faithfully serves Chicago and its visitors, albeit on a smaller scale than the enormous O'Hare. Midway's Orange Line "El" stop is one effort to expand its availability to flyers and relieve some of O'Hare's congestion.