{"id":418274,"date":"2026-08-27T15:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/418274\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T15:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:00:08","slug":"arlington-archives-explores-the-road-to-building-dfw-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/418274\/","title":{"rendered":"“Arlington Archives” Explores the Road to Building DFW Airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published on August 27, 2026<\/p>\n


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By Office of Communication\u00a0<\/p>\n

The newest episode of the “Arlington Archives<\/a>” explores the origins and economic impact of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, one of the most influential infrastructure projects in North Texas.<\/p>\n

The episode titled, \u201cHow North Texas Built a Global Gateway,\u201d is hosted by O.K. Carter with co\u2011host Jock Bethune, a longtime narrator for American Airlines training films and a historian of the airport\u2019s development. Carter and Bethune outline the decades long struggle between Dallas and Fort Worth that delayed the creation of a regional airport, beginning with early debates in 1920s and continued through years of civic competition.<\/p>\n

Bethune explains how Fort Worth publisher Amon Carter pushed back against Dallas\u2019 focus on Love Field, championing the construction of Amon Carter Field, later renamed Greater Southwest International Airport. Despite attracting major airlines, the airport never reached the passenger numbers needed to rival Dallas. Its decline eventually opened the path for federal pressure that pushed both cities to cooperate and begin building DFW in 1969.<\/p>\n

\u201cProximity matters,\u201d Carter said. \u201cDFW contributes billions to the North Texas economy and Arlington benefits from being only 20 minutes away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hosts note that DFW now contributes an estimated $78.3 billion annually to the region\u2019s economy and supports more than 600,000 jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cDFW and American Airlines transformed North Texas into a global aviation center,\u201d Bethune said. \u201cDFW provided the scale and infrastructure and American supplied the network and innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Produced in celebration of Arlington\u2019s sesquicentennial in 2026, the series features voices from historians, city leaders and longtime residents. Future episodes will further explore Arlington\u2019s history, spotlighting milestones and anniversaries in the city\u2019s storied past.<\/p>\n

Visit\u00a0Arlington150.com<\/a>\u00a0for more historical articles, photos and events planned throughout 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow North Texas Built a Global Gateway\u201d offers listeners an engaging look at one of the city\u2019s most influential institutions and the people who shaped it. The episode is now available on all major podcast platforms and the City\u2019s social media channels including Facebook<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on August 27, 2026 By Office of Communication\u00a0 The newest episode of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-418274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}