AP PHOTOS: The old and the new at rebuilt LaGuardia Airport

May 27, 2021 Craig Ruttle, Associated Press

A Southwest aircraft moves along a new taxiway at LaGuardia Airport, Thursday, May 20, 2021, in New York, becoming the first aircraft to pass beneath the pedestrian sky bridge that connects gates with the new Terminal B at the airport. The sky bridge, one of two, is part of a greater design and redevelopment that will deliver passengers to new gates and reduce gate delays on taxiways that have previously plagued the congested airport. AP Photo/Craig Ruttle

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A multibillion dollar makeover of New York City’s LaGuardia Airport isn’t completely wiping away the airport’s storied past.

Quietly functioning on the nearly 700 acres of the evolving transport hub are some of the oldest continuously operating airport facilities in the U.S.

Just west of the gleaming hull of the airport’s new Terminal B stand two American Airlines airplane hangars that date back more than 70 years, to the earliest days of civil aviation and the advent of cross-country flights.

Farther west are Hangar 7 and the Marine Air Terminal, known as Terminal A, where terra cotta flying fish symbolize the Boeing 314 Clipper flying boats that skimmed across nearby Bowery Bay in 1939.

Hangar 7, once a facility for the flying boats, now houses snow removal equipment. The Marine Air Terminal continues to serve passengers, and the hangers are being upgraded and will continue to serve as an aircraft maintenance facility.

Those old facilities might be noticed by relatively few of the passengers returning to LaGuardia after the pandemic downturn.

Passengers move about a spacious Terminal B of New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Wednesday, March 24, 2021, in New York. The terminal was opened on June 13, 2020 as part of a challenging architectural plan that is expanding the airport on no more acreage than before. AP Photo/Craig Ruttle

The airport is in the midst of replacing cramped corridors and ticketing areas at its central terminal with fresh gates and ramps, even as flights continue to arrive and depart.

It has been a swirl of construction activity for years, but the new facility has gradually emerged, in some places decorated with art and an indoor fountain that resembles a continuous light show.

A frieze of terra cotta flying fish adorn the roofline of the Marine Air Terminal, Monday, March 29, 2021, at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the terminal was designed by the firm Delano & Aldrich and today remains the only active terminal in the nation that dates back to the first-generation of air travel. AP Photo/Craig Ruttle

Beyond the steel and glass of the new passenger halls, there are links to past and present.

Brilliant colors of massive murals from contemporary artists Laura Owens and Sabine Hornig depicting New York City scenes illuminate Terminal B’s interior. The human connection to flight and travel is honored in these modern narratives and in a restored Art Deco classic canvas inside the circular hall of the Marine Air Terminal that dates to 1939.

They allow us to visualize where we’ve been and where we’re going, all in one glance.