"Meigs Field: Still the only U.S. infrastructure destroyed by terrorism since 9/11/2001." At midnight, March 30-31, 2003, illegally and without notice, Chicago's Mayor Daley demolished the best-known single runway airport on the planet: Meigs Field. The mayor's announced reasoning for the closure was to somehow prevent terrorists from mounting an attack on downtown Chicago. The airport was named after Merrill Meigs (November 25 , 1883 - January 26 , 1968) who died at 84. He had been friends with William Randolph Hearst and Henry Ford. He had given Harry Truman his first flying lessons and had passed along putting tips to the Duke of Windsor. He met public luminaries from Winston Churchill to Gen. Douglas MacArthur. He had served on a commission with Lindbergh, the man who had set the focus for much of his life. Honorary pallbearers included three U.S. senators, then-Mayor Richard J. Daley, the founder of the Bears and the then-owner of the Cubs.