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On a good day in 2003, the three terminals at Newark Liberty International Airport funnel nearly 90,000 passengers to and from nearly every corner of the earth. It is one of the busiest airports in the world and one of the oldest commercial airfields in the nation.
In a good year in the 1930s, Newark Municipal Airport funneled nearly 90,000 people through its one terminal. Not too bad, when you consider the planes of the day held 12 people.
It was the first commercial airport in the nation with a paved airstrip. It was also "the busiest airport in the world in the 1930s," Newark Liberty Manager Susan Baer said. "This is a great historical treasure we are the stewards of."
There are many parallels between then and now. Back then, the Newark Airport set up the nation's first air-traffic control tower. This year, Newark Liberty christened one of the tallest control towers in the nation.
The historical comparisons are timely in this, a year of milestones in the history of flight. Newark Liberty turns 75 on Wednesday, reaching that mark just a couple of months before the nation will celebrate the 100th anniversary of flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C.
Both events mark turning points in history.
As the Wright brothers lifted off that sandy dune at Kitty Hawk, they heralded a new age of travel. Some 25 years later, when the first airplane landed on Newark Municipal Airport's cinder-paved runway, it signaled the beginning of scheduled passenger flights.
As Newark Airport grew over the decades, its evolution mirrored that of flight in general. There have been moments of glory - such as the creation of the first air-traffic control system; and of tragedy - with three planes crashing in Elizabeth in the 1950s and a hijacked flight from Newark that crashed in a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001.
Indeed, Newark's airport has lived many lives.
Its current incarnation includes a rebuilt Terminal C, new roads and parking areas, and a new control tower - the fourth in the airport's history. The coming years will see an expanded monorail, a renovated Terminal A, and possibly a new terminal.
But things didn't start out that grandiose.
The journey from a cinder airstrip on 68...