These days, Los Angeles International Airport (aka LAX) is a sprawling, bustling complex of nine different terminals, seven parking lots, and traffic that never stops. What a contrast to this shot taken in 1959 of the TWA Terminal. It all looks so low-key, as though it were instead the Greyhound bus depot in Rancho Cucamonga.

Tony says: “It is important to note that this was the Los Angeles International Airport terminal area at its original location south of Century Boulevard and east of Sepulveda Boulevard. It had evolved from Mines Field which opened in 1930. Today’s terminals began to open in 1961 more than a mile away, on the west side of Sepulveda Boulevard. This original area is now used for some cargo operations.”

Andie P says: “It was low key and easy in, easy out, from Sepulveda Blvd. and one could get in “the back way” if Sepulveda was jammed, as sometimes happened. I often flew down from San Francisco on a 3-day pass, flying PSA and my dad would pick me up on his way home from his construction “yard” in Long Beach and drive “over the hill” to his home in Sepulveda. He knew what time the PSA flight landed (4:10 P.M.) and would wait for me at the curb at 4:30 because that’s all the time it took to deplane and walk through the terminal.”