The main terminal and control tower of Washington Dulles International Airport was designed by Eero Saarinen.

Photo: Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority

James Bennett, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, peruses a view of Dulles airport from the cab of the control tower. The old 178-foot traffic control tower at Dulles Airport, designed by architect Eero Saarinen, was dwarfed in 2006 by a newer traffic control center that looms 325 feet and a mile away from the original. The cab of the newer tower offers a 360-degree view of the entire airport facility and the runways that is not available from the old tower.

Photo: unknown

A plane taxis for take-off at Dulles International Airport. Air traffic controllers were able to view all runways from the new 325 foot tower after it opened in 2006.

Photo: unknown

This baggage handler has his hands full during midday arrivals at Dulles Airport, as thousands of passengers arrive and depart the large airport in 2000.

Photo: unknown

An Airbus, the largest super jumbo passenger jet at Dulles Airport, sits on the tarmac as another plane flies by.

Photo: Carol Guzy

McLean South girls softball all-star short stop, Jamie Bell, pulls her softball equipment off the baggage claim after the team returned from their win at the world series in Oregon in 2005.

Photo: John McDonnell

Ryan Fard, 3, gets a lift from his father, Shahram Fard, on Dulles International Airport's moving sidewalk in November of 2004. They were traveling from their home in Stafford to Atlanta for Thanksgiving.

Photo: Katherine Frey

Pastor Charlie Grant, left, an airport chaplain at Dulles International Airport, talks with fellow officer, Cpl. Isabel Smith, right, in 2005. Smith responds to many of the calls for assistance when a homeless person arrives at the airport. Every few weeks, someone arrives at the airport with a one-way ticket, no money, and nowhere to go from there. For more than ten years, airport police have called chaplain Grant to come pick up homeless arrivals and take them to shelters in the area.

Photo: Tracy A. Woodward

The passenger walkway to Concourse B on Nov. 22, the day after it opened. The addition gave people the option of taking the walkway with moving sidewalks instead of waiting for the mobile lounges to get from point A to point B at Dulles International Airport.

Photo: Katherine Frey

Crowds at the international flight arrivals area at Dulles Airport in 2004.

Photo: Tracy A. Woodward

Comet, a three and a half year old beagle, is part of the USDA's Beagle Brigade. After sniffing some fruit in an international traveler's bag, he watches his handler, officer Ilka Matthes, check the passenger's customs slip.

Photo: uknown

James and her children, Maggie, 5 and Iola, 2, wait on the floor just outside of customs at Dulles Airport for her husband to join them upon his return from Rome in 2001.

Photo: Robert A. Reeder

People movers, also known as mobile lounges, help get passengers from one end of the Dulles International Airport to another quickly.

Photo: Robert A. Reeder

The crowded interiors of the lumbering mobile lounges at Dulles, pictured here, will be replaced with a subway connecting the terminals.

Photo: Robert A. Reeder

Construction of an underground railway system at Dulles International Airport in 2004.

Photo: Jahi Chikwendiu

Workers at Dulles International Airport's underground train system in Chantilly, VA. The train system is scheduled to open in 2009 and will largely replace the "mobile lounges" that currently shuttle passengers between terminals.

Photo: Jahi Chikwendiu

The addition to the National Air and Space Museum was built on a 176-acre site at Dulles International Airport. The project, one of the largest museum spaces in the world, holds over 200 aircraft that the museum in D.C. doesn't have space to showcase.

Photo: unknown

Members of the Stone Bridge High School band, Allison Croon, left, and Merideth LeDuc, right, tune their sousaphones before performing on Dec. 15, 2003, at the opening of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian.

Photo: unknown

The observation tower and entrance area of the addition to the popular Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Dulles' Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center on Dec. 11, 2003. The futuristic complex exhibits dozens of vintage and historic flying machines including the Enola Gay, a Concorde and the Space Shuttle Enterprise. It is named after Steven F.Udvar-Hazy, a Hungarian immigrant who made a fortune in aircraft leasing and donated a record $65 million toward the museum's construction.

Photo: J. Scott Applewhite

Mapmaker Eugene Scheel sits outside his office in Waterford, VA with a map he made titled, "One-Half Hour From Washington Dulles International Airport." The map was made to mark he 20th anniversary of Dulles Airport.

Photo: Tracy A. Woodward