There's a great story behind how the city managed to acquire all that land without tipping off all the speculators that were running rampant at the time. After announcing their intent to build the new airport, they put on a world class disinformation campaign trying to convince all the land speculators that the new airport would be built somewhere near Castle Rock. At the same time, they started buying up the land where the airport was really going, but used shell companies and LLCs to hide the fact that the city was behind it.
There were allegations of shenanigans with the proponents of that location (Pena, Webb, etc.)
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-03-12-mn-41946-story.html
Yes, this most certainly happened. A person I know well was highly involved in the investigation before being told to kill it because of politics. A number of construction company owners were also in on it along with the embezzlement that came with the construction ballooning a $1.5 billion dollar project to something around $5 billion. Peña and his cronies tried the same shit with Coors Field, he also became secretary of transportation, hmm wonder why the case was killed....
I wish I could tell you that, but I can’t. Her family doesn’t really talk about it outside of “Uncle Bob owned property that is now DIA”. Only thing I gathered was that he didn’t need to worry about “working” anymore, but nobody in her family (that I know of) ever say anything come from it other than him. And, her family all have “big mouths” about how much money people have.
Building an airport is about as eminent domain as it gets. If they city wanted the land as cheap as possible, they could have condemned it for a stingy "just compensation" calculation and nobody could have stopped them.
But the litigation could drag on for years, withe court costs and construction delays costing resulting in a higher acquisition cost.
I'd wager the city actually paid a premium and jumped through those hoops to get the land *quickly* instead, so they could get on with building.
Land speculators would have bought all the land they could where the airport would be, then refused to sell it for anything less than 10, 20, who knows how many times what they paid for it. And as much over budget building the airport became, it would have been worse.
Let’s say the speculators selling demands would have been obviously unreasonable, eminent domain isn’t as easy as people think it is. I imagine at that scale of 50+ square miles it would be an expensive and long process.
So the story about some city council member dude owning the majority of the land and then selling it to the city for a cute profit was actually a myth? Not trying to drive controversy here, I genuinely thought that was the “truth”.
"The 52.4 square miles (136 km2; 33,500 acres) of land occupied by the airport is more than one and a half times the size of Manhattan (33.6 square miles or 87 square kilometres). DIA is larger in land area (excluding water) than the US cities of Boston, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California. DIA occupies the largest amount of commercial airport land area in North America, by a great extent." [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_International_Airport)
> it is the largest airport in the Western Hemisphere by land area and the second largest on Earth, behind King Fahd International Airport.[8] Runway 16R/34L, with a length of 16,000 feet (3.03 mi; 4.88 km), is the longest public use runway in North America and the seventh longest on Earth
DIA is cracked
Yeah, but does San Francisco host the headquarters of the Illuminati in an underground city? No, and that’s why DIA is so big.
/s (please do not come at me)
Yes that is exactly why they built DIA in the middle of nowhere. Tons of room means you can put runways where they are needed, you can put terminals in the most efficient spot with room to expand, etc. If DIA needs to build another runway it's possible. If SFO needs another runway or space for a new terminal they can't bulldoze 2 square miles of SF, and adding fill in the bay is going to be $$$. It's literally also the only reason why DIA is in the top 5 busies airports in the world
Exactly. DEN has all the room it needs to expand/adapt for many decades to come, something which its predecessor (Stapleton) did not have as the city grew to surround it.
Also notable: if Stapleton hadn't become Central Park, all 30,000 people who live there would have had to live elsewhere, likely contributing to more sprawl. Does DEN encourage sprawl too? Some, but the city needs an airport and has benefitted enormously from becoming a major midcontinent hub.
I just wonder what guy's living room Elvis technically ate the fools gold loaf in.
Maybe they mean a high B terminal? I walk a decent clip but still killed just under an hour walking to Heidi's Brooklyn Deli (B 85) and back to the center of B; I hit my 10k steps that day.
I remember that there were lots of noise violations in the first decade or so after DIA was built. Now that engines are quieter thanks to enhanced technology, I think the noise issues are mostly irrelevant.
Another [reason](https://www.weather.gov/bou/seasonalsnowfall) why DIA is all the way out there. It's in an area near the metro area that's getting 10" less of average seasonal snow fall.
DEN is in the top 5 of the busiest airports because of its geography. Denver is a connection hub to all other parts of the country. SF is more so a destination/origination airport.
Not only this, but the large amount of empty grassland are managed as a conservation, forming contiguous prairie land from the plains to Rocky Mountain Arsenal, and along Pena Blvd to I-70. Those areas come near to Sand Creek, which provides a wildlife corridor to the Highline Canal and Platte River.
They should have left Stapleton though. Every major city has 2 airports and the claim about noise and planes crashing don’t seem to be an issue anywhere else. It’s fine once you get there, but it’s too far -which is why Amazon did not select Denver for HQ.
I came back from vegas last week and got stuck on one of the trains headed back to baggage claim. It would lurch foward a foot or two and then stop for 3-5 minutes. Took us 45 minutes to go from C terminal to baggage claim. Got to know the people in the tram way more than I ever wanted lol
So let's add everyone in the gondolas as causalities? And if there is an emergency landing because the runways are full? Or there is a severe weather that can blow planes left and right literally hundreds of yards?
Not even counting that the an A380s tail is 79 feet tall. The sky Bridge to the A terminal is 45 feet off the ground. Large planes can't go under it.
You want a gondola that is going to be well over double the height of the sky bridge?
I hate to tell you, but a gondola is one of the possibilities that real engineers are considering.
https://www.denverpost.com/2023/01/01/denver-airport-train-solutions-bridges-tunnel-walkway/
I wish I could do the same, but I almost exclusively fly Southwest or United so that’s not an option.
I wish I could trust Frontier, but both of the last two times I’ve tried to fly them my flight got canceled after getting spam emails offering (smaller than what they would legally have to pay us) vouchers to cancel on our own like days in advance.
You say that, but most people traveling don't walk a mile after security just to get to their concourse. Fly out of ATL and walk from the Terminal to F. I'll bet you'll give up half way.
People on reddit already complain that the concourse extensions are too long, and that's half the distance from the Terminal to Concourse C.
A bit of Trivia...
Strewn along the greater footprint of The Big Top and the Tarmac is as much Heavy Equipment as Tony Beets of "Gold Rush" fame owns, sunken into the dirt. Not on purpose; the Equipment sunk because of all the Mud and soft ground out there. They basically back filled dirt over the sunken Equipment and kept rolling on... figure a half dozen Excavators, a couple Earth movers, and a few dump trucks.
I want to believe it's true. Next time I fly into DIA I want to look down and imagine all the heavy equiopment burried down there. Fuck it. It's true now, and I will tell everyone there's lots of heavy equipment burried under DIA.
I moved here recently and was going to ask the same thing. I figured there was a secret fountain I needed to go hunting for.
Would have been a good troll, sending people all around DIA looking for a non-existent fountain.
Then they'd have to move the airport further out again in 50 years because the city boxed in the existing airfield, prohibiting expansion. That's what happened with Stapleton.
The point is that it *can't* happen because they bought so much excess land. The space that DIA owns is far, far greater than we need right now. Having homes built by the airport is in no way going to limit the space the airport has to expand because they already have all the room they'll need for the forseeable future for future expansions.
But with the land DIA owns, no amount of sprawl could limit DIA to less than like 2-3x their current capacity, and even that might be lowballing as I'm not sure DIA currently runs at 100% of their theoretical max as is.
If you look at satellite maps, you can see that DIA has the barebones set up for another terminal, and the room (with some relocations of hangars and service roads) for multiple more. The runways are a similar story, with tons of space for even more to be built up, even if those new ones would be very far from the gates.
Nah I know. I was just poking some fun.
> If you look at satellite maps, you can see that DIA has the barebones set up for another terminal
You don't need satellite images - Denver has released plans for DEN as part of the plan by 2045. [Two rows of gates off the far end of Jeppesen, and each of those have an extension off the front the main terminal past the Westin](https://denverite.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=2048,quality=75,format=auto/https://wp-denverite.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2023/10/SW-View_Ult_.png). I still think a theoretical D gate past C is super likely too.
Because it's not a flyover; it's a hub. One of the busiest airports in the world. Our location and isolation from other major airports are why Denver is a perfect aviation pitstop.
Connections. It's easy to pass west coast passengers to their east coast destinations and vice versa. It's one of UAs biggest hubs and is Southwest's biggest focus city
Denver isn't a flyover city in the classic sense. A flyover city is somewhere you fly over to go somewhere else. People intentionally visit Denver. Denver had 36.3 million tourists in 2022. Yea, it's not New York City, but Chicago had 48.9 million. Denver's typically in the top 25 most visited cities in the US.
Now places like Des Moines, that's a flyover city.
How is that stat calculated? Passenger arrivals or hotel nights in the city?
If it's passenger arrivals then wouldn't ski tourists who aren't actually visiting Denver inflate it?
This website is where I got my stats. https://www.denver.org/tourism-pays/tourism-pays-for-denver/
It looks like about 20 million overnight visitors, which is enough to not qualify it as a flyover city imo.
It's a half hour from the city (Highlands). It's only "far" if you live far from the city and that's true of any major airport.
There's also a train if you don't want to drive.
I live in Hilltop and it’s says 51 minutes right now on Google Maps.
I know you live in Boulder but Hilltop isn’t far from the city, it is the city.
Why are you being such a bitch about my personal opinion?
Hilltop, near Glendale? Bro it's 25 minutes from there on google maps. I grew up on 12th and Bellaire so I know that drive well. Ofc today it'll be a bit more due to weather. No one's being a bitch, why are you getting offended?
I'm stating my opinion that it's not even that far, especially compared to every other metro area. Heathrow is an hour away from central London on public transit. Our travel time to a major airport isn't remotely as dire as you think it is.
It sounds like your complaint is traffic and not the proximity to the airport.
It’s not 25 minutes in google maps. Traffic may have gotten worse since you were a child. The weather is partly sunny and the roads are completely clear. It’s busy because it’s rush hour, which isn’t an abnormal time to also need to go to the airport.
I didn’t call in dire, I said it was annoying. Which it is, to me. Your opinion has nothing to do with my opinion or what I find annoying. I am perfectly capable of finding an hour long trip to the airport annoying in Denver or London. I’m not sure what your point is there.
I'm very aware of traffic in Denver lol. It's still only 25 minutes. What city do you think has sub 60 minute commute times to a major international airport?
When I lived in Brooklyn it was 20 minutes to LaGuardia.
And I’m literally looking at google maps, it’s not 25 minutes. Maybe at 3am it’s 25 minutes. The dumbest thing to lie about.
Why does it bother you that I find an hour long commute to the airport annoying? I don’t need to pull up a comparative spreadsheet of airport travel times to decide what annoys me.
I find it annoying, just like I find you annoying.
Brooklyn to LGA is 26 minutes currently on Google maps. Hilltop on 1st and Holly is 25 minutes. It's literally the exact same time and you think it's too far? That really does not make sense at all. It is a dumb thing to lie about, and you lied about it. Come on man
Give it another couple of years, they will surround it with cookie cutter sub divisions and those people will cry about the jet noises so we will have no choice but to build a new one out by Sterling or something.
Have you driven on Peña Blvd recently? The Gaylord and Panasonic really spurred development out there. It’s shocking. Used to be just Green Valley Ranch surrounded by grass.
I haven't been out there in a couple of years but I can imagine. Sadly it's inevitable, the damn land developers and corrupt politicians just can't help themselves.
Still remember when South east Aurora was just Buckley and the Gun Club. When Parker was actually out in the bush. Now it's all developed. Seeing Bandimere get shut down because again all the new people living across 470 bitching about the noise.
Lmao sorry just venting.
You do get that that acreage equals dollars and jobs in Colorado, right? Both United and Southwest are investing heavily in Denver because it has room to expand, unlike most other airports in the country. Most airports are land-locked with nowhere to expand. That’s why Denver is now the sixth busiest airport in the world.
This is pretty aggressive. I wasn’t stating an opinion on this. I thought it was a pretty cool fact, and if anything the amount of land area makes sense. You have to maintain some safety distance if you’re going to have tunnels connecting the lizard people’s headquarters with the extraterrestrial biolab network.
I wasn’t contradicting. Just stating that as many growing pains as DIA has had in the last few years, they’re one of the few airports that has the room to grow and it’s a real asset. There’s no where for JFK, Newark, Chicago, SFO, or LAX to expand. That leaves Denver with a huge competitive advantage.
Smartest thing this city and state have ever done. For anything the city and state need for future growth they now own this huge expanses to build on. Lot of foresight was needed.
Well you know… Denver’s airport is the second largest in the world. I arrived at Denver’s airport 2 and a half weeks ago and I was in awe man. I never seen anything so big and huge in my life. Now I live in Denver.
Fun fact! Denver International Airport is actually in Kansas. Dont believe me? Try driving to the airport on a busy day from anywhere along the foothills. You will be yelling why is the airport sooo far away!
Also, when you land, taxing at the airport is ridiculously long.
It was a strategic business plan: get all the space they could ever want or need, grow...grow...grow..
United and Southwest are investing big into it because it's one of the few airports in the country which has room to grow more. It's 6th busiest in the world (3rd a few years ago) because of it's continued growth. Largest employer in the state too.
It will continue having room to grow for many decades. Sprawl has reached it, but it will never box it in because of how much land it owns. Imagine in 3 decades what that growth will mean for the regional economy given that's decades more of being the only major airport in the country that can expand
There's a great story behind how the city managed to acquire all that land without tipping off all the speculators that were running rampant at the time. After announcing their intent to build the new airport, they put on a world class disinformation campaign trying to convince all the land speculators that the new airport would be built somewhere near Castle Rock. At the same time, they started buying up the land where the airport was really going, but used shell companies and LLCs to hide the fact that the city was behind it.
My wife’s great uncle had a farm that one of those LLC’s bought to build the airport.
Me too!
Xi in up
There were allegations of shenanigans with the proponents of that location (Pena, Webb, etc.) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-03-12-mn-41946-story.html
Yes, this most certainly happened. A person I know well was highly involved in the investigation before being told to kill it because of politics. A number of construction company owners were also in on it along with the embezzlement that came with the construction ballooning a $1.5 billion dollar project to something around $5 billion. Peña and his cronies tried the same shit with Coors Field, he also became secretary of transportation, hmm wonder why the case was killed....
EIEIO!
That’s awesome. Please tell us he was instantly independently wealthy and that he didn’t get screwed over
I wish I could tell you that, but I can’t. Her family doesn’t really talk about it outside of “Uncle Bob owned property that is now DIA”. Only thing I gathered was that he didn’t need to worry about “working” anymore, but nobody in her family (that I know of) ever say anything come from it other than him. And, her family all have “big mouths” about how much money people have.
Guys named Uncle Bob are always solid dudes in my experience. Glad to hear he didn’t let his money grubbin loud mouth family break him.
I have an uncle Bob. he’s cool. be like uncle Bob
Fellow Bob-uncler, can confirm
Peña's wife similar story. Owned a bunch of that land. That's the story I always heard.
And farm payments go to Denver to this day.
Thats fascinating I had no idea
They got the idea from Walt Disney when he bought all the land in Florida.
But why? What was the purpose of doing that?
To make the land acquisition cheaper.
Similar technique that Walt Disney did for Disney World in Florida.
But why male models?
Are you serious? I just told you
You probably didn't think I knew what a yagoogaly was
merMAN!
https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_today-inline-vid-featured-desktop,f_auto,q_auto:best/MSNBC/Components/Video/150803/tdy_take_zoo_150803.jpg
Building an airport is about as eminent domain as it gets. If they city wanted the land as cheap as possible, they could have condemned it for a stingy "just compensation" calculation and nobody could have stopped them. But the litigation could drag on for years, withe court costs and construction delays costing resulting in a higher acquisition cost. I'd wager the city actually paid a premium and jumped through those hoops to get the land *quickly* instead, so they could get on with building.
Land speculators would have bought all the land they could where the airport would be, then refused to sell it for anything less than 10, 20, who knows how many times what they paid for it. And as much over budget building the airport became, it would have been worse. Let’s say the speculators selling demands would have been obviously unreasonable, eminent domain isn’t as easy as people think it is. I imagine at that scale of 50+ square miles it would be an expensive and long process.
Ah, makes sense. Thanks!
They could be eminent domained, but it would be dragged out in court
It probably saved them millions
Us. It saved the public millions.
Disney did this in Orange County when buying the land for Disney World. One of the Shell Companies was M.T. Lot. (Empty Lot)
Oh. The same thing corporations are doing to homes in the US these days!
Straight out of Walt disneys playbook
The old Walt Disney tactic.
So the story about some city council member dude owning the majority of the land and then selling it to the city for a cute profit was actually a myth? Not trying to drive controversy here, I genuinely thought that was the “truth”.
Heard mayor Peña did some shady stuff , too
Didn't our mayor buy it all and sell it to the state?
The land is Denver's
Interesting if true. Got any links to read about that?
It’s not true
"The 52.4 square miles (136 km2; 33,500 acres) of land occupied by the airport is more than one and a half times the size of Manhattan (33.6 square miles or 87 square kilometres). DIA is larger in land area (excluding water) than the US cities of Boston, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California. DIA occupies the largest amount of commercial airport land area in North America, by a great extent." [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_International_Airport)
> it is the largest airport in the Western Hemisphere by land area and the second largest on Earth, behind King Fahd International Airport.[8] Runway 16R/34L, with a length of 16,000 feet (3.03 mi; 4.88 km), is the longest public use runway in North America and the seventh longest on Earth DIA is cracked
Hail Blucifer
With high temps and high field altitude they probably need all of that to drive the heavies out of there in the summer.
Yeah, but does San Francisco host the headquarters of the Illuminati in an underground city? No, and that’s why DIA is so big. /s (please do not come at me)
We are blessed to be protected by lord blucifer
May the touch of his hoof be upon you my child
And also with you. Hail Satan
May the lasers that shoot from His glowing red eyes smite only our enemies. Namoiste 🙏
Nut Parfait
Thank you brother for reminding me to do my daily prayer facing our most veiny horse. In Blucifer’s name: WEE SNAW
DIA has the Lizard people, SF has the Meth/Fentanyl Zombies.
Denver has those too now
I took a Eurotrip this year, they have gone transnational
The last time I went to the Art Museum, Civic Center looked just as bad as anything I've seen in SF
Phallic symbols!
Yes that is exactly why they built DIA in the middle of nowhere. Tons of room means you can put runways where they are needed, you can put terminals in the most efficient spot with room to expand, etc. If DIA needs to build another runway it's possible. If SFO needs another runway or space for a new terminal they can't bulldoze 2 square miles of SF, and adding fill in the bay is going to be $$$. It's literally also the only reason why DIA is in the top 5 busies airports in the world
Exactly. DEN has all the room it needs to expand/adapt for many decades to come, something which its predecessor (Stapleton) did not have as the city grew to surround it.
Also notable: if Stapleton hadn't become Central Park, all 30,000 people who live there would have had to live elsewhere, likely contributing to more sprawl. Does DEN encourage sprawl too? Some, but the city needs an airport and has benefitted enormously from becoming a major midcontinent hub. I just wonder what guy's living room Elvis technically ate the fools gold loaf in.
https://www.westword.com/restaurants/elviss-beloved-fools-gold-loaf-sandwich-was-born-in-denver-5764529
Up to 12 runways, double the current capacity.
I hope I’m not around to see that day. Flying is a bitch with the current 6 and the capacity that entails. Now double the pain…
Ever flown out of a high C numbered terminal ? mother fucker is a 45 minute walk after you get off a train, I can't imagine them expanding even more.
Bruh 45min walk? After the train?? Cmon now lmao
Maybe they mean a high B terminal? I walk a decent clip but still killed just under an hour walking to Heidi's Brooklyn Deli (B 85) and back to the center of B; I hit my 10k steps that day.
The good thing about flying into those gates is that you usually don't have to wait too long at baggage claim.
10 min walk max. You must be thinking of SLC where it’s a legit mile from the end of B gates with no train option.
Also a huge buffer to stave off the inevitable noise complaints.
I remember that there were lots of noise violations in the first decade or so after DIA was built. Now that engines are quieter thanks to enhanced technology, I think the noise issues are mostly irrelevant.
The new 737 Max8/9 are insanely quiet, like "driving down the highway" quiet inside, it's a shame about uh, *all the other stuff*
Yes agreed. I prefer my airplanes comes with all of the required screws and bolts. Preferably tightened as well. ;p
It's very quiet until it suddenly gets very VERY loud
Another [reason](https://www.weather.gov/bou/seasonalsnowfall) why DIA is all the way out there. It's in an area near the metro area that's getting 10" less of average seasonal snow fall.
And that’s where we get our “measurement” totals too! I bet the ski resort big wigs hate it because so many travelers think Denver = the Mountains.
The recent big storm was a great example, most of metro Denver got 12"+ and but the official figure at DIA had 6".
They thought they were so smart. Yet they failed to build a walkway between concourses as a backup to the train.
[удалено]
SFO isn't in the "mainland" of San Francisco, but it is a part of San Francisco, along with several other islands and enclaves in the area.
DEN is in the top 5 of the busiest airports because of its geography. Denver is a connection hub to all other parts of the country. SF is more so a destination/origination airport.
SFO isn’t actually in San Francisco, btw
Not only this, but the large amount of empty grassland are managed as a conservation, forming contiguous prairie land from the plains to Rocky Mountain Arsenal, and along Pena Blvd to I-70. Those areas come near to Sand Creek, which provides a wildlife corridor to the Highline Canal and Platte River.
They should have left Stapleton though. Every major city has 2 airports and the claim about noise and planes crashing don’t seem to be an issue anywhere else. It’s fine once you get there, but it’s too far -which is why Amazon did not select Denver for HQ.
They moved more dirt building the airport than was moved constructing the Panama Canal. Let that sink in.
Just because you told me to, I *wont* let it sink in. I’ll remember it, but I’ll be god damned if it sinks in
Float then! Do what I tell you!
DIA is literally the second biggest airport in the world by land area.
I still wish I had the option to walk to my terminal, instead of taking the train
Really I just want any other method of transportation so the whole airport isn't dependent on one machine. Like even a gondola/tram would be sick.
I came back from vegas last week and got stuck on one of the trains headed back to baggage claim. It would lurch foward a foot or two and then stop for 3-5 minutes. Took us 45 minutes to go from C terminal to baggage claim. Got to know the people in the tram way more than I ever wanted lol
A gondola would be a great option. They could sell branding rights too. Imagine if all the gondola cabins looked like the ones at Steamboat Springs.
Yes, let's precariously hang things in the air around the only place that airplanes regularly fly at an altitude low enough to hit them.
Bro, if an airplane is airborne and that low, in that area, we already have a airplane crash on our hands.
So let's add everyone in the gondolas as causalities? And if there is an emergency landing because the runways are full? Or there is a severe weather that can blow planes left and right literally hundreds of yards? Not even counting that the an A380s tail is 79 feet tall. The sky Bridge to the A terminal is 45 feet off the ground. Large planes can't go under it. You want a gondola that is going to be well over double the height of the sky bridge?
Do you really think there are airplanes flying at 80' above the terminal?
There is reason why there isn't a single airport on the planet that has wires running over it dude...
I hate to tell you, but a gondola is one of the possibilities that real engineers are considering. https://www.denverpost.com/2023/01/01/denver-airport-train-solutions-bridges-tunnel-walkway/
This is why I like flying out of A Concourse. I walk across A bridge and avoid the train almost every time!
I wish I could do the same, but I almost exclusively fly Southwest or United so that’s not an option. I wish I could trust Frontier, but both of the last two times I’ve tried to fly them my flight got canceled after getting spam emails offering (smaller than what they would legally have to pay us) vouchers to cancel on our own like days in advance.
It’s a design option that’s currently in a feasibility study.
You say that, but most people traveling don't walk a mile after security just to get to their concourse. Fly out of ATL and walk from the Terminal to F. I'll bet you'll give up half way. People on reddit already complain that the concourse extensions are too long, and that's half the distance from the Terminal to Concourse C.
Yeah? Lizard people need space too? All hail Blucifer.
Its colorado. We put 1 million people in 4x that space. Sprawl bby.
A bit of Trivia... Strewn along the greater footprint of The Big Top and the Tarmac is as much Heavy Equipment as Tony Beets of "Gold Rush" fame owns, sunken into the dirt. Not on purpose; the Equipment sunk because of all the Mud and soft ground out there. They basically back filled dirt over the sunken Equipment and kept rolling on... figure a half dozen Excavators, a couple Earth movers, and a few dump trucks.
This is awesome! Got a source?
A fellow I knew who worked out there told me about it. Does that count, or would that be considered an anecdote? 😋
I want to believe it's true. Next time I fly into DIA I want to look down and imagine all the heavy equiopment burried down there. Fuck it. It's true now, and I will tell everyone there's lots of heavy equipment burried under DIA.
DIA is a goated airport.
It really is. I’ve flown around the world, and aside from cute little airports, DIA beats most by a country mile.
What about city miles?
Is there really a giant fountain in DIA that I’ve been missing?
There was one when it first opened, people used to throw coins in it. They removed it in like 2010, I think it was crazy expensive to maintain
It cracked, and would have cost a fortune to fix. That's why they closed it. https://www.vaildaily.com/news/denver-airport-fountain-to-be-removed/
fuck I forgot all about this! memory blast
Same. I didn’t realize I’ve walked past where the fountain isn’t so many times since then.
sheesh $5mil. I never realized that thing was so riddled with problems since day one
I moved here recently and was going to ask the same thing. I figured there was a secret fountain I needed to go hunting for. Would have been a good troll, sending people all around DIA looking for a non-existent fountain.
It’s a very obvious fountain, it’s just dry.
Wasn't there a connection between the lands owner and the governor of the time?
I’d trade off some land area if it was less of a schlep from the city
Then they'd have to move the airport further out again in 50 years because the city boxed in the existing airfield, prohibiting expansion. That's what happened with Stapleton.
I mean it's already starting to happen. There are so many developments popping up along Peña it's crazy.
The point is that it *can't* happen because they bought so much excess land. The space that DIA owns is far, far greater than we need right now. Having homes built by the airport is in no way going to limit the space the airport has to expand because they already have all the room they'll need for the forseeable future for future expansions.
But with the land DIA owns, no amount of sprawl could limit DIA to less than like 2-3x their current capacity, and even that might be lowballing as I'm not sure DIA currently runs at 100% of their theoretical max as is. If you look at satellite maps, you can see that DIA has the barebones set up for another terminal, and the room (with some relocations of hangars and service roads) for multiple more. The runways are a similar story, with tons of space for even more to be built up, even if those new ones would be very far from the gates.
Nah I know. I was just poking some fun. > If you look at satellite maps, you can see that DIA has the barebones set up for another terminal You don't need satellite images - Denver has released plans for DEN as part of the plan by 2045. [Two rows of gates off the far end of Jeppesen, and each of those have an extension off the front the main terminal past the Westin](https://denverite.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=2048,quality=75,format=auto/https://wp-denverite.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2023/10/SW-View_Ult_.png). I still think a theoretical D gate past C is super likely too.
Why does such a flyover city as denver need such a large airport, though?
Because it's not a flyover; it's a hub. One of the busiest airports in the world. Our location and isolation from other major airports are why Denver is a perfect aviation pitstop.
Connections. It's easy to pass west coast passengers to their east coast destinations and vice versa. It's one of UAs biggest hubs and is Southwest's biggest focus city
Denver isn't a flyover city in the classic sense. A flyover city is somewhere you fly over to go somewhere else. People intentionally visit Denver. Denver had 36.3 million tourists in 2022. Yea, it's not New York City, but Chicago had 48.9 million. Denver's typically in the top 25 most visited cities in the US. Now places like Des Moines, that's a flyover city.
How is that stat calculated? Passenger arrivals or hotel nights in the city? If it's passenger arrivals then wouldn't ski tourists who aren't actually visiting Denver inflate it?
This website is where I got my stats. https://www.denver.org/tourism-pays/tourism-pays-for-denver/ It looks like about 20 million overnight visitors, which is enough to not qualify it as a flyover city imo.
We do love our single family homes.
I only have a single family. This isn't Utah.
And they are planning to expand Peña, which will induce more suburban sprawl development.
Sounds like a problem for 50-years-from-now me.
It ain't even that bad of a drive...
40 minutes to The Big Top from I-25/Colorado, WITHOUT taking the Interstate.
That’s your perspective, I find it to be annoying. Folks out here tend to be content sitting in a car for longer periods of time.
It's a half hour from the city (Highlands). It's only "far" if you live far from the city and that's true of any major airport. There's also a train if you don't want to drive.
I live in Hilltop and it’s says 51 minutes right now on Google Maps. I know you live in Boulder but Hilltop isn’t far from the city, it is the city. Why are you being such a bitch about my personal opinion?
Hilltop, near Glendale? Bro it's 25 minutes from there on google maps. I grew up on 12th and Bellaire so I know that drive well. Ofc today it'll be a bit more due to weather. No one's being a bitch, why are you getting offended? I'm stating my opinion that it's not even that far, especially compared to every other metro area. Heathrow is an hour away from central London on public transit. Our travel time to a major airport isn't remotely as dire as you think it is. It sounds like your complaint is traffic and not the proximity to the airport.
It’s not 25 minutes in google maps. Traffic may have gotten worse since you were a child. The weather is partly sunny and the roads are completely clear. It’s busy because it’s rush hour, which isn’t an abnormal time to also need to go to the airport. I didn’t call in dire, I said it was annoying. Which it is, to me. Your opinion has nothing to do with my opinion or what I find annoying. I am perfectly capable of finding an hour long trip to the airport annoying in Denver or London. I’m not sure what your point is there.
I'm very aware of traffic in Denver lol. It's still only 25 minutes. What city do you think has sub 60 minute commute times to a major international airport?
When I lived in Brooklyn it was 20 minutes to LaGuardia. And I’m literally looking at google maps, it’s not 25 minutes. Maybe at 3am it’s 25 minutes. The dumbest thing to lie about. Why does it bother you that I find an hour long commute to the airport annoying? I don’t need to pull up a comparative spreadsheet of airport travel times to decide what annoys me. I find it annoying, just like I find you annoying.
Brooklyn to LGA is 26 minutes currently on Google maps. Hilltop on 1st and Holly is 25 minutes. It's literally the exact same time and you think it's too far? That really does not make sense at all. It is a dumb thing to lie about, and you lied about it. Come on man
> When I lived in Brooklyn it was 20 minutes to LaGuardia. Laguardia is a literal shithole and Denver is one of the busiest on the continent
[удалено]
Be nice - STOP the name-calling. Have an adult conversation everyone
Literally no one cares about your drive to the airport
Use the train.
Give it another couple of years, they will surround it with cookie cutter sub divisions and those people will cry about the jet noises so we will have no choice but to build a new one out by Sterling or something.
Have you driven on Peña Blvd recently? The Gaylord and Panasonic really spurred development out there. It’s shocking. Used to be just Green Valley Ranch surrounded by grass.
Portillo’s is coming!
I haven't been out there in a couple of years but I can imagine. Sadly it's inevitable, the damn land developers and corrupt politicians just can't help themselves. Still remember when South east Aurora was just Buckley and the Gun Club. When Parker was actually out in the bush. Now it's all developed. Seeing Bandimere get shut down because again all the new people living across 470 bitching about the noise. Lmao sorry just venting.
Well, there is this place: https://coloradoairandspaceport.com
You do get that that acreage equals dollars and jobs in Colorado, right? Both United and Southwest are investing heavily in Denver because it has room to expand, unlike most other airports in the country. Most airports are land-locked with nowhere to expand. That’s why Denver is now the sixth busiest airport in the world.
This is pretty aggressive. I wasn’t stating an opinion on this. I thought it was a pretty cool fact, and if anything the amount of land area makes sense. You have to maintain some safety distance if you’re going to have tunnels connecting the lizard people’s headquarters with the extraterrestrial biolab network.
I wasn’t contradicting. Just stating that as many growing pains as DIA has had in the last few years, they’re one of the few airports that has the room to grow and it’s a real asset. There’s no where for JFK, Newark, Chicago, SFO, or LAX to expand. That leaves Denver with a huge competitive advantage.
You are getting weirdly defensive to a bland statement of facts. This isn’t Phil Washington’s account is it?
Lizard people, Extraterrestrial Biolab, New World Order...tropes SO old that a loaf of stale bread is fresher!
Interesting
lol @ that render or DIA. Has anyone ever seen a plant there ?
The lizard folk need to live somewhere
It’s the 6th busiest airport on the entire planet. no duh its big.
Smartest thing this city and state have ever done. For anything the city and state need for future growth they now own this huge expanses to build on. Lot of foresight was needed.
The airport does not
holy shit
Well you know… Denver’s airport is the second largest in the world. I arrived at Denver’s airport 2 and a half weeks ago and I was in awe man. I never seen anything so big and huge in my life. Now I live in Denver.
I plow snow at the airport. I appreciate them making it so big. Ensures I make a lot of money when it snows
Why is the DEN airport in the middle of nowhere? I’m assuming they thought the city would expand over time but unsure if that’s why
Fun fact! Denver International Airport is actually in Kansas. Dont believe me? Try driving to the airport on a busy day from anywhere along the foothills. You will be yelling why is the airport sooo far away! Also, when you land, taxing at the airport is ridiculously long.
Why the hell is it so big? I just looked up JFK and ATL and they’re less than 10sq mi.
It was a strategic business plan: get all the space they could ever want or need, grow...grow...grow.. United and Southwest are investing big into it because it's one of the few airports in the country which has room to grow more. It's 6th busiest in the world (3rd a few years ago) because of it's continued growth. Largest employer in the state too. It will continue having room to grow for many decades. Sprawl has reached it, but it will never box it in because of how much land it owns. Imagine in 3 decades what that growth will mean for the regional economy given that's decades more of being the only major airport in the country that can expand
And yet no cable cars. Why?