Denver Airport: Passenger Hub or Underground Power Center?

On February 28, 1995, Denver International Airport opened northeast of Denver, Colorado. It replaced Stapleton Airport and was built on about 136 square kilometers of land. Six runways now spread around the terminal, though the airport opened with five and the sixth was added in 2003. The terminal roof rises like the Rocky Mountains. Seen from above, the runways form a shape that many people connect with the Nazi swastika. Below ground are passenger trains, baggage tunnels and several technical levels.

From its first day, the project looked unlike an ordinary airport build. The airport opened four times late, and the automated baggage system worked only in part. The U.S. Government Accountability Office put the total cost at about 4.893 billion dollars in a late-1994 report, and the final figure ran nearly two billion dollars over budget. A huge airport built far from neighborhoods, with tunnels under the terminal and images of war, death and survival, easily became the center of a story larger than passenger travel.