Atlantic City, NJ is The Home of America’s First Airport

Atlantic City, New Jersey is the home of many firsts throughout history.

Among these important firsts, is the creation of the term “Airport.”

According to the Bader Field Facebook Page:

The first known usage of the term "air-port" appeared in a newspaper article in 1919, in reference to Bader Field. The term was coined by Robert Woodhouse and referred to the "Flying Limousines", a seaplane passenger service between Atlantic City and New York.

Bader Field was named after former Atlantic City Mayor Edward L. Bader, who was responsible for acquiring the land required to create a commercial airport.

Bader Field closed forever on September 30, 2006.

Bader Field is owned by the City of Atlantic City and it has been for sale for a number of years.

Penn National Gaming tried to purchase Bader Field for almost $ 1 billion, however, they were stopped by former Atlantic City Mayor Jim Whelan.

DEEM Enterprises is trying to develop Bader Field as we speak. The current status of their efforts is unknown to the public at this time.

Here’s a clear and concise description provided by the Bader Field Facebook Page:

Bader Field was opened in 1910 and was authorized to provide passenger service in 1911. It was the first U.S. municipal airport with facilities for both seaplanes and land-based airplanes.The first known usage of the term "air-port" appeared in a newspaper article in 1919, in reference to Bader Field. The term was coined by Robert Woodhouse and referred to the "Flying Limousines", a seaplane passenger service between Atlantic City and New York.Bader Field was the founding location of the Civil Air Patrol in 1941. Scheduled commercial airline service at the airport ended in 1990, when Allegheny Airlines moved to the larger Atlantic City International Airport. The control tower was removed in the late 1990s and some of the former airport property was used to build a minor-league baseball stadium.

Also, an ice skating rink was built in the late 1990’s on the Bader Field site and is currently operating in a poor state of repair.

The gallery below outlines just some of the many Atlantic City “firsts”.