Delta planes sit outside the "terminal" at Augusta's Daniel Field in 1939. [FILE/THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE] ▲

In the summer of 1939 downtown Augusta's Union Station continued to boom with train travel, but out off Wrightsboro Road air transportation was taking off.

In the summer of 1939, downtown Augusta's Union Station continued to boom with train travel, but off Wrightsboro Road, air transportation was taking off.

Daniel Field and Delta Airlines were making it happen.

"Visions of city fathers who 12 years ago saw Augusta as a great terminal for air lines teeming with activity are looming into reality today as plans and hopes for a greater municipal airport mount," The Augusta Chronicle reported.

Delta had begun flights into Augusta years before, and in 1939 was adding direct connections to eastern and western states.

"We want to be ready because now is the time for Augusta to get her share of the air routes," Mayor R.E. Allen said.

In preparation, Daniel Field was expanding its runways with a "small army" of Works Progress Administration workers.

The Augusta project provided steady employment for 340 common laborers, 47 semi-skilled workers, 42 skilled artisans, 28 superintendents and two clerical workers.

"This army of shovelers has excavated and moved a total of 539,654 cubic yards of earth," The Chronicle reported in August.

"Hundreds of truckloads were dumped into the small 'canyon' that marred the western end of the airport," it was reported. The "canyon" had apparently served as a longtime dump for tin cans and refuse from the Forest Hills neighborhood.

Not only were runways being expanded, but the city had also spent $31,500 on a new hangar and was getting about $4 from the federal government for each dollar it spent.

Some of the expansion was bringing about changes in the municipal golf course next to the airport.

In the weeks before Christmas, Delta was running large advertisements in The Chronicle suggesting families might want to "fly home for the holidays."

They even offered times and rates: You could fly from Augusta to Atlanta in 61 minutes for $7; to Chicago in eight hours for $45; and to Los Angeles in 16 hours and 45 minutes for $119.