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Dulles International Airport Main Terminal

airport terminal in Virginia, US

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ136544402 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Dulles International Airport Main Terminal is located in Loudoun and Fairfax counties in Dulles, Virginia, United States. The original structure, 600 feet (180 m) long and 150 feet (46 m) wide, was designed by Eero Saarinen and completed in 1962 as the first terminal at Dulles International Airport. Annexes to the west and east were completed in 1996 as part of a renovation designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), bringing its total length to 1,240 feet (380 m). The terminal is operated by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates Dulles Airport as a whole. The terminal's design is a suspended structure with roof panels of precast concrete suspended between cables which span the width of the building.

The Main Terminal's design includes parallel slanted colonnades on the terminal's north and south facades, interspersed with glass walls. The landside facade to the north is taller than the airside facade to the south; a concave roof supported by cables connects the two facades, descending toward the center. A concourse and control tower extend south toward the airport's apron. The interior was originally divided into two levels: an upper story for departing passengers and a lower story for arriving passengers. Saarinen's original design included mobile lounges that ferried passengers directly to planes, reducing the need for long walks or taxiing while increasing the airport's operational flexibility.

Editorial summary

“Dulles International Airport Main Terminal” enters the record as airport terminal in Virginia, US. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Dulles, International and Airport can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1962, 1996—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Dulles, International and Airport.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Dulles International Airport Main Terminal” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Dulles, International and Airport provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q136544402. Authority coordinates are 38.953, -77.448. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1962 and 1996.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Dulles International Airport Main Terminal”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Dulles International Airport Main Terminal primary sources, Dulles International Airport Main Terminal archive and Dulles research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Dulles International Airport Main Terminal”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Dulles International Airport Main Terminal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.