In 2003, Chicago’s mayor sent bulldozers to carve six giant Xs into an airport runway overnight, stranding 16 planes; 12 years later, the former airfield reopened with 40 acres of prairie, wetlands and wildlife habitat

When Chicago residents woke up on March 31, 2003, one of the city's most recognisable small airports had effectively disappeared overnight. Under orders from then-Mayor Richard M. Daley, construction crews arrived at Meigs Field in the early hours and carved six enormous X-shaped gouges into the runway, making it unusable. Sixteen aircraft were left stranded on the airfield. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), which reported on the closure as it unfolded, described how pilots initially faced uncertainty before arrangements were made for their departure. The dramatic closure ended Meigs Field's role as Chicago's lakefront airport. But the story of the site took another unexpected turn. Twelve years later, in 2015, 40 acres of the former airfield opened as a natural landscape of prairie, wetlands and wildlife habitat.

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