Crissy Field

This guide to Crissy Field in San Francisco traces its naming for Major Dana Crissy, an Army pilot killed in an October 1919 transcontinental air race, and the seventeen years of aviation history that followed on this shoreline, including the first dawn-to-dusk crossing of the country and a 1925 attempt to reach Hawaii by air. You'll also hear how the airfield fell into decay after 1936, paved over and used as a dumping ground for decades. Listen for how the site's ecology changed once the Army finally left.