The Airport That Disappeared 

I am an American Airlines pilot and the American Airlines training academy is located at GSW. We actually refer to the training academy as GSW to this day. Very cool video, thanks

I went to work as a mechanic at GSW in 1965. One of my tasks was to taxi a DC-3, with flight crew on board, from the hangar to the terminal building for the origination of a scheduled flight. The airline had a mechanic taxi the airplane that far to avoid paying the flight crew for their time, so they were my passengers for that mile or so. After parking the airplane one day, I was connecting a hose from the underground air conditioning system to keep the aircraft cool as the crew waited for departure time. I noticed a well-dressed man standing between the terminal and airplane and asked him if I could help. He said had been told to come out to board his airplane for his flight. I was quite surprised--the flight's first stop was in Dallas, twelve miles away, and I had never before seen a passenger board at GSW rather than driving to Love Field and boarding there. I alerted the crew and escorted him aboard while the flight attendant hurried to prepare for an actual paying passenger. Contrast that to the always-crowded flights of today.

GSW was a beautiful terminal building. My father took me there several times when I was a kid, and I was sort of in awe of the place since it was always empty. As one of the posts below said, it made you appreciate the beauty of our older buildings. The only thing interesting about Love Field was the terrazzo map of the world in the middle of the terminal, and the fact that you never had to wait to see a plane land or take off.

So many beautiful buildings were built in the 50's and 60's. They represented the optimism of the time. Most of these grand buildings are gone today. It's a real shame since most of these places were replaced with uninspired insipid structures.

I'm old enough to remember the '183 Tunnel' that supported the old GSW runway (1980).

My father, a 30 year AA employee, had an office at GSW in the late 60’s early 70’s. I remember going there as a kid but I never witnessed active airline traffic from the old airport.

if you look at the right side of the screen at 8:08, you will see the sign for KXAS TV NBC 5 Studios. KXAS was WBAP Channel 5 from 1948 to 1974 and they recently moved from 3900 Barnett St in Ft Worth Texas. This area is known as Broadcast Hill. KXAS NBC 5 broke ground on the old Amon Carter Airport location for their new state of the art tv studio! It was completed back in 2012 and the new studios is called the The Studios at Centerporte. It houses both KXAS NBC 5 and KXTX Telemundo 39. And KXAS paid homage to its founding father with the new address for KXAS. The new address is 4805 Amon Carter Blvd. That address has special meaning. The 48 in 4805 is the year that which WBAP/KXAS started broadcasting for the first time on September 29, 1948. The 05 in 4805 is for Channel 5 and as mentioned before, Amon Carter is the station's founder.

Bits of the old GSW runways can still be seen from the SH 360/183 interchange area.

The person designing the layout of this airport must have been the one who designed the Wichita, KS airport. Both opened in 53 and had pretty much the same layout with two concourses.

The video mentions the oak trees that once lined the semi-circle drive and how they would soon be all gone due to development but I believe that three of the original trees still exist. right behind Taco Bell there are three old oaks that are rather unkempt and gnarly. They are in the right position and proper spacing to be some of the original trees. I have no way to determine their actual age but they appear to be older as the trunks at the base are quite large.

I grew up here but I'd forgotten about Greater Southwest until I watched this video. I Never flew out of there but have flown from both Love and DFW many times. Thanks for the history lesson.

Just came upon your channel, glad I did. You had me right from the git go, so interesting and your voice is perfect for these types of videos. I hope your channel grows quickly! ❤️

I saw an air show performance of the Confederate Air Force at this airport about 1970. I remember walking past the abandoned terminal.

The opening of DFW Airport was actually delayed, and the first flight landed on January 13, 1974, AA Flight 341 from New York. The dedication and open house did take place in 1973.

This entire rivalry between Dallas and Fort Worth ended up being an expensive joke. GSW or Amon Carter field was located right where DFW airport is today! They could have just expanded and modernized GSW instead of demolishing a beautiful relatively new terminal with priceless Art Deco architecture. Then once all the airlines are REQUIRED to relocate from Love to DFW, suddenly there is Southwest Airlines that began service from Love after permission from the Dallas City Council. Of course Braniff and Texas International wanted back in at Love in order to compete with SW on their coveted intra Texas routes. As of 2019 there is not one other major airport in the U.S. where ONE airline is allowed to have such a large monopoly than SW at Love

I remember the tunnel on airport freeway that went under the old GSW runway.

Part of the old runway of GSW still exists north of 183 abutting Amon Carter Blvd. on the south side of 183.

I actually live in an apartment on the site of the old airport, very cool

I went to a couple of Boyscout jamborees there back in the mid 70's. I remember roaming around the old terminal buildings. I had a blast. I think that experience might have gave me my interest for abandoned buildings. Little by little there were parts of the airport demolished. I've lived in Arlington since 1992. I believe the last remaining building was demolished within the last five years.

If they had only looked at a map and read from left to right, it would have been the FWD airport :-)

Excellent, thanks!!

GSW airport closed the year I moved to Texas. I remember picking my dad up from the airport in the last year of its existence.

Great job. Informative and well done!

Very cool. I have read about GSW but thanks for making a video!

crazy story of a great airport born in the wrong place wrong time being an avgeek if time travel existed i know where id go first especially since i live in texas anyway

I definitely hope it does regain it. It is such a natural hub for India to East Asia. Just like Miami is in US for Latin America. It was even a major stop for the 1st jet, the Comet 1. So it definitely needs some long haul flights

just to think what the metroplex would have looked like without DFW airport.

4:36, What a cool shot. I'd like to know when that was taken.

This was interesting.

Sad story...it was a showplace.

In nowhere but Texas poor planning and misguided interest can survive in unprofitability.

The story I read is the two cities couldn't agree on the location so their time ran out and the FAA decided for them. The fued was so bad that when the Dallas mayor had a meeting in Ft. Worth he would carry a sack lunch because he refused to pay a single cent in taxes to the city of Ft. Worth. That huge mess is known as the biggest waste of taxpayers money ever in the DFW Metroplex. Beautiful airport that was torn down almost as fast as it was built. My first plane trip was in 1955 from BOS to GSW on an AA plane they called their Flagship. Maybe a DC-7. I still have the little diploma looking card they gave that was signed by all the pilots and stewardess. You can imagine pilots today signing autographs for their passengers before a flight. Lol!

Ms. Faryal

I wish southwest would fly out of meacham or alliance airport.

I dispute the idea that either GSW or DFW are "better" for the entire region. Better for Tarrant County/Fort Worth, perhaps, but not the entire region. The entire problem is this - the vast majority of the Metroplex's population and wealth lives in Dallas and Collin counties (especially historically, it's becoming less so today). Fort Worth/Tarrant County has never been able to sustain a proper airport. Even Meacham was financially moribund with little traffic before GSW. But Fort Worth business leaders, especially the incredibly envious and spiteful Amon Carter, didn't want to put up with travelling all the way to Dallas for air travel. In fact, Carter held a deep seated vendetta against Dallas going back decades, and pushed for both Midway and GSW to be closer to FW and primarily in Tarrant County specifically to "stick it" to Dallas county. So basically what Fort Worth/Tarrant County have always demanded is a very substantial subsidy from Dallas-side population and businesses to provide them with an airport that is much more convenient for the former, but much less convenient (than Love) for most of the latter. I live in Irving and DFW is actually slightly closer in terms of time travel but I prefer Love. It's so much easier to get around and park.

What a bunch of babies!

AS usual, Dallas ruined everything.

I wish all airports & aircraft would disappear along with the evil pilots that do not have any consideration of how many lives they disturb & traumatize.

This was great. I wish there were videos of inside the airport. So many airfields have disappeared like this one. Another one close by that closed was Mangham Field, much smaller but gone still. Thank you!

I'm from Houston, but believe it should read FWD also to inspire the vision FW had Forward! But Dallas had the $$$, of course.