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-July 9, 1949 was a beautiful summer day in Seattle.
Perfect for just this sort of event.
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-It's opening day at Seattle Tacoma International Airport.
-The future has arrived in the Pacific Northwest.
-The soaring control tower,
the airy glass walled concourses,
was hailed as America's most advanced airport terminal.
-My biggest memory is that it was really hot.
And when you think about it,
acres of concrete absorbing all that heat, no shade anywhere.
-30,000 people were there for the fanfare.
Days shy of her 4th birthday,
Kathy Mills Rozzini remembers the ride for the big day.
-I remember my sister in the car.
I think we were being brats
and so my parents were probably at their wits end.
And Cheryl said, "We're going to fly in an airplane."
And so I thought, "This is really cool."
Had no idea what an airplane was.
-That's little Kathy on the right with her family
at Sea-Tac 75 years ago.
-Got here and that no, we were not going to fly in an airport,
but we got a Coca Cola.
It was a day out. It was a trip. But I had no concept.
Airport, what's an airport?
-Rozzini grew up with aviation.
Her father was a World War II pilot,
her uncle an executive with United Airlines,
and her grandfather started Star Air Service,
which later became Alaska Airlines.
-The airport represented modern flight.
It was a big deal to fly. That's why everybody dressed up.
Men wore suits and the women wore hats and gloves.
-As traveling became more popular by the early '50s,
four airlines served 1,500 passengers a day.
Inside the terminal,
travelers enjoyed fine dining, a barbershop, even a Santa Claus.
In baggage claim, your luggage was handed to you.
-What I really love is getting out on a plane
and then they taxi and then they start out and then they go
[imitates engine] and I just love that.
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-The runways looked a little different than too.
Originally, the airport had four crosswind runways shaped
like an X, designed for airplanes taking off
and landing in almost any wind direction.
As airplanes were built to better handle crosswinds,
the X runways were eliminated
and the north-south runway was lengthened.
A few decades later, a third runway was added,
which is what we have today.
-We used to walk in the door, walk on the plane.
That was it. You might show your ticket.
I think they figured you know what,
if they've got this far, they have a different.
-In the early '60s,
Seattle was on the global stage hosting the 1962 World's Fair.
Many celebrities touched down at Sea-Tac at the time,
from astronaut John Glenn and Walt Disney,
to British Royal Prince Philip,
President Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B.
Johnson, and Elvis Presley.
But the start of the '70s meant major cuts for Boeing.
The region's largest employer went from 100,000 employees
in 1967 to about 38,000 in 1971.
-When I first came here, you've got to remember
there was a big sign out by the freeway
out here, big light bulb, that said,
"Will the last person out of Seattle turn off the lights?"
after Boeing had let everybody go.
-That's Oris Dunham, now 84 years old.
He was the airport director in the '70s
and navigated the airport through a memorable
and turbulent decade.
-Well truly I saw the movie Airport.
I didn't know there was an airport director
until I saw Burt Lancaster be an airport director.
And so I started looking around.
I was selling fight control systems to airlines.
-Young Oris convinced the managers at Sea-Tac
to hire him as an unpaid trainee.
He worked his way up to airport director.
-For the first six months,
I'd spend a week washing cars.
Another week I'd work in a flight kitchen.
Another week I'd be with a floating cargo or baggage.
I got to see what the airport did, which was really good.
And then I started working through the different parts
of the port of Seattle airport operation.
And so I got a better education
than anybody's ever going to get to run an airport
because you saw it all.
-In November of 1971,
Dunham was in his early 30s and working the night D.B. Cooper
hijacked a plane traveling from Portland,
Oregon to Seattle, demanding a large ransom.
-Five minutes after they took off, he unlocked the back door.
Nobody knew you could unlock the back door in the air.
He did.
-Cooper parachuted out of the aircraft
with the money near the Columbia River.
Some of the cash was later found,
but he was never caught or identified.
It remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries
in U.S. history.
-You're only concern is just the public.
How do you keep the public safe?
-The public saw major changes at the airport during the '70s.
The expansion was the largest undertaking during that decade
as air traffic hit just over five million passengers.
Dunham says it was a nonstop construction site.
-We built two satellite terminals,
we second leveled the roadway, and built the parking garage.
Almost every week we changed the way people drove, walked,
or the airplanes taxied for two years.
-The subway trains we now use to get to the satellite terminals
were added in the '70s.
The driverless automatic shuttle trains were the first
of its kind in the country.
Dunham says by the early '80s
the airport was running like a well-oiled machine.
-Every day is a new day
and that's one thing about working in an airport.
You're never bored.
-Dunham went on to serve as airport director in Los Angeles,
where he ended up full circle with the actor
who inspired him to take on this job.
-And he said he wanted to meet somebody
who his movie had made their career
and now I have the picture at home.
Keep them flying Oris.
-Much has changed in 75 years.
Today Sea-Tac, or SEA as it's referred to now,
has grown to serve just over 50 million passengers in 2023.
Thirty-nine airlines now serve 93 domestic
and 33 international destinations.
-Maybe it's what it represents?
It represents traveling for business or family coming in
or you going out.
Now it's an everyday part of life.
-Sometimes the best part is knowing,
no matter how far you go, you still get to come back.
-I'm going to cry. I never really thought about it.
There is a real emotional attachment.
When you land at Sea-Tac,
there's that feeling of coming home.
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