Federal Aviation Agency

During and after the Second World War, the Washington D.C. metropolitan area was served by only one airport, Washington National Airport (now known as Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport). However, the growing demand for airport capacity caused Congress to pass the second Washington Airport Act of 1950, which provided for the "construction, protection, operation, and maintenance of a public airport in or in the vicinity of the District of Columbia."

Eight years later, President Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) approved a 10,000 acre site between Loudoun and Fairfax Counties as the airport's future location. Finnish architect Eero Saarinen (1910-1961), who designed the terminal building and control tower of the airport, described it as "the best thing I have ever done," and believed that the design captured "the soul of the airport." Named for former secretary of state John Foster Dulles (1885-1959), Dulles Airport was built to serve six million passengers a year and was one of the most modern airports of its time. Today, after expansions completed in the 1970s and 1980s, Dulles now accommodates more than 55,000 passengers a day and 20 million passengers a year.