Storied Berlin airport closes

Berlin's Tempelhof Airport saw its final flights take off yesterday. The aging facility has been closed in anticipation of a major new airport to be built in an outlying area of Berlin.

It may have been Orville and Wilbur Wright who brought us the machinery, but you might say Tempelhof is where the magic of flying was born. It opened as the first passenger airport in 1923 and became the largest and most modern airport in the world after the current structure was built between 1936 and 1941, during Nazi rule. In its 85 years of service, it hosted everything from the Beatles to round-the-clock airlifts during the Berlin Blockade.

It's a sad day for people who cherish those memories, but also for critics of the change, who say closing an airport with such proximity and convenience to the city center just goes to show politicians' apathy towards Berlin's economic well-being. We'll leave that fight to the Berliners. Let's just say that with so many superstar architects working on slickly designed, glorified shopping mall airports these days, it's sad to see a classic go.