Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday said LaGuardia Airport is like a "third world country" while speaking about infrastructure in Pennsylvania.

Biden said if someone were blindfolded and taken to the airport in Hong Kong at 2 a.m. and asked "where do you think you are," the person would say "'This must be America, it's a modern airport.'"

He went on: "If I took you and blindfolded you and took you to LaGuardia Airport in New York you must think, 'I must be in some third world country.'"

"No, I'm not joking!" he added. "Why did we lead the world economically for so long? We had the most modern infrastructure in the world."

The vice president was unveiling Amtrak's newest engine at an event in Philadelphia and touting the need for more investment in U.S. infrastructure.

LaGuardia was turned into a private flying field in 1929 after it was transformed from an amusement park. It became New York Municipal Airport-LaGuardia Field in 1937, and was leased to the Port Authority 10 years later.

It has four terminals, the newest of which was built in 1992.

It's among the busiest airports in the world, with more than 25 million travelers passing through in 2012.