Naval Air Base before runway was built in 1941
This file appears in: Naval Air Station & University of New Orleans
This 203 acre tract of land on the New Orleans lakefront, once a swampy, unsanitary shoreline of Lake Pontchartrain, was graded and leveled by WPA workers to provide the US Navy with a landing field for its new base. Buildings of the base, still under construction, are shown in the background.
Courtesy of Louisiana Division/City Archives, New Orleans Public Library
This file appears in: Naval Air Station & University of New Orleans
Naval Air Station & University of New Orleans
In the fall of 1940, the Navy began improving its primary flight training facilities by building up its system of Naval Reserve air bases, including New Orleans. The lakefront base housed a steel…