Northerly Island Chicago

Northerly Island is actually a 78-acre peninsula to the south of Chicago’s 12th Street Beach. It was once the home of a busy commuter airport called Miegs Field that was popular with business people and politicians flying between Chicago and the state capital of Springfield. This bit of ground became the center of a battle between state politicians, who wanted to keep it as an airfield; and Chicago’s controversial Mayor Richard Daley, who wanted to use the land for a park. On March 31, 2003, under the cover of night, work crews operating under Daley’s orders went out with jack-hammers and other equipment, and destroyed the runway. Daley explained that the little airport could have been used by terrorists in an attack on Chicago.