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Newark Liberty International Airport (IATA airport code EWR) is an international airport in northern New Jersey, 4.5 mi (7 km) southeast of Newark and 14 mi (22 km) west of midtown Manhattan. Along with JFK and LaGuardia, it is one of the main airports serving the New York City area.
Newark Airport was the first major airport in the New York area: it opened on October 1, 1928, occupying an area of reclaimed marshland. Newark was the busiest airport in the world until LaGuardia Airport opened several years later, dividing New York's air traffic and allowing Midway International Airport to take the lead.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey took over EWR in 1948 and made major investments in airport infrastructure, opening new runways and hangars and revamping the airport's terminal layout. These investments persuaded Continental Airlines to establish a hub at Newark: United Airlines and FedEx also opened cargo hubs there.
On September 11, 2001, United Airlines Flight 93, which was on its way between Newark and San Francisco's San Francisco International Airport, crashed in Pennsylvania, due to a passenger uprising against terrorist hijackers who wanted to crash Flight 93 into the Capitol in Washington, DC. Because of the event, Newark Airport was renamed Newark Liberty International Airport.
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