![]() Puente Colgante – Insular Ice Plant and Cold Storage.The Jones Bridge and Otto Fischer-Credo.Heacock’s Department Store on the Escolta.Santo Tomas Internees Liberated 70 years ago.Los Baños Internment Camp Liberation – 70th Anniversary.Manila’s Public Transportation – a pictorial essay.My Alma Mater – The American School, Inc.Thankfully, the old Nielson tower terminal was saved from demolition and was used as a restaurant and now houses the Filipinas Heritage Library. After Manila International Airport was moved to the Nichols Field location, Nielson Field deteriorated. In late 1950s, I recall seeing parts of the old tarmac covered with weeds in areas surrounding Ayala Avenue. ![]() As the airport was substantially damaged during the war, it took over a million pesos to reconstruct the terminal and field and it immediately became the official port of entry for air passengers into the country. Philippine Airlines resumed operations at the Nielson Field Airport on February 14, 1946. The Japanese military quickly took control of the field in January 1942. Just seven months before war broke out in Dec 1941, Philippine Airlines flew their first commercial flight out of Nielson Field. Before that international flights via PanAm Clippers landed in Manila Bay. The birth of the Manila International Airport started out at the Grace Park Airfield in 1935. Not very esthetic to look at but it seemed to work and no one complained.” [source: “I have a hat too…flying in the fifties was fun !”,īefore the war, Manila had two civilian airfields: Eugenio Lopez’s INAEC (Iloilo-Negros Air Express Company) used a strip near the Bonifacio Monument, called Grace Park.Īndres Soriano and PAL crew at Nielson Tower. They hung from the rafters on bare wires. Overhead the ceiling lights were bare electric light bulbs. ![]() There were old wooden tables set up for customs and immigration. The front side was almost all open to the sky. It had a large white hand painted board that said “Manila International Airport” in black paint. “The Manila International Airport was a large WWII metal Quonset hut painted white. Flying to San Francisco would be a two-day trip stopping at Guam, then Honolulu and finally, the Golden Gate city. ![]() Your family and friends could see you off at the gate while you walked across the tarmac to your plane dressed of course, in your Sunday best no jeans and t-shirt. It was then a one level Quonset hut-like building where one could buy their tickets at the PAL, Northwest or PanAm counter. In the late Forties and early Fifties, we would take a four-engine prop plane from Manila International Airport. That’s me below – I believe this must have been at HongKong’s Kai Tak airport. Looking back on those days, I have come to appreciate the valuable education I received from visiting all these countries. Being their only child, I was always “dragged” along for the ride. to visit her sisters and brother in California, Florida and South Carolina. On the other hand, my mom just loved to travel, typically going to the U.S. Because of our jewelry store on the Escolta, my dad wandered all over the world searching for exotic jewels from faraway places such as India and Morocco to basic costume jewelry from factories in New Jersey. In the meanwhile, please look at my list of previous posts on the right hand column and hopefully you’ll find one or two of interest. Hopefully, I’ll come up with new ideas when I return. After several years of writing my blog, I am taking a creative breather.
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