due to the significant contributions to general aviation and military aviation made there during the Interwar period. Floyd Bennett Field also contains facilities such as a natural area, a campground, and grasslands. History Planning Need for an airport Floyd Bennett Field was New York City's first municipal airport, built largely in response to the growth of commercial aviation after World War I. During the 1920s, air travel in Europe was more popular than in the United States because, although Europe had a surplus of airplanes, the United States already had a national railroad system, which reduced the need for commercial aircraft. While other localities (such as Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Cleveland, Ohio) had municipal airports, New York City had a multitude of private airfields, and thus did not see the need for a municipal airport until the late 1920s. The New York City Board of Estimate submitted a recommendation for a New York City municipal airport in 1925, but it was denied. Two years later, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced a similar recommendation, which was largely ignored. By this time, the city urgently needed an airport. This was underscored by the construction of the Newark Municipal Airport in 1928, as well as several transatlantic flights from the New York area that were piloted by such figures as Charles Lindbergh, Clarence D. Chamberlin, and Charles A. Levine. Most of the nation's air traffic around this time was from airmail operations, and the United States Postal Service designated Newark Airport as the airmail terminal for the New York City area, since Newark was the region's best-equipped airport for airmail traffic. New York City officials decided that an airport in the city itself was necessary, because placing the airmail terminal in Newark represented a missed opportunity to put New York City on the aviation map. In mid-1927, Herbert Hoover, the United States Secretary of Commerce, approved the creation of a "Fact-Finding Committee on Suitable Airport Facilities for the New York Metropolitan District". The Hoover committee, composed of representatives from New York and New Jersey, identified six general locations in the metropolitan area where an airport could be built. The committee recommended Middle Village, in Central Queens, as the first location for an airfield. Its second choice was an existing airstrip on Barren Island in southeastern Brooklyn. Another site in the eastern part of the bay, near the