Guardia was elected mayor. Angered that a flight on which he was a passenger landed in Newark, New Jersey, even though his ticket said "New York", LaGuardia pushed New Yorkers to support the construction of an airport in New York City itself. The city did have a public airport, Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, but it was further from Midtown Manhattan than Newark Airport was. After commencing several studies on the feasibility of a new airport in New York City, the La Guardia administration decided to redevelop the existing North Beach Airport in Queens. The city government leased North Beach Airport in 1934. Development La Guardia's administration presented plans for a renovation of North Beach Airport (now LaGuardia Airport) in August 1937. The plans included a terminal for seaplanes along Bowery Bay, on the western side of the airport, as well as a terminal for land planes along Flushing Bay, on the eastern side. The seaplane terminal, to be known as the Marine Air Terminal, was to contain four hangars, an administrative building, and a machine shop. The administrative building was to be a circular brick-and-steel edifice measuring tall and about across. A baggage check, customs and immigration offices, an air traffic control tower, and various other offices would be centered around a main waiting room, and there would be access ramps for seaplane passengers. The seaplane and land-plane terminals, both designed by the firm of Delano & Aldrich, would operate independently of each other. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) would provide federal funding for the project. U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt approved plans for the airport on September 3, 1937, and La Guardia participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for the airport six days later. The airport was originally projected to cost $15 million and be completed in time for the opening of the 1939 New York World's Fair. By July 1938, the WPA employed 7,800 workers on the project, and workers were expanding the airport site through land reclamation. The number of workers had increased to 11,500 by that November, and the cost had increased to $29 million. Prior to the opening of the seaplane terminal, in early 1939, The New York Times reported that flying boats from England, France, Germany, and the United States would be using the terminal. The terminal had been planned with two seaplane hangars, but only one hangar was built at the time; that