By Cyril and Kyle Bradford Smith

The area seen in this photo is where Garden City Bowl is now. The bridge with the soldiers on it was an overpass of the Long Island Motor Parkway. It offered access from Stewart Avenue to both Roosevelt Field and the Meadowbrook Polo Club fields. The airship will level out and be hauled in close to where the Verizon building on Zeckendorf Blvd now sits. In the photo, the Roosevelt Field hangars that lined Old Country Road on the northern edge of Roosevelt Field are visible. Last week, the Garden City News featured an article about two important aviation milestones in which the Village was directly involved: the first-ever crossing of the Atlantic by the NC 4, a very large seaplane made by Curtiss Aircraft in Garden City, and the landing of the huge British dirigible, the R 34, at Roosevelt Field.

In fact, 1919 was notable for several aviation firsts. A few weeks after NC 4's achievement in May 1919, two British fliers flew non-stop from America to England.

Then in July of 1919, the massive British dirigible R 34 took off from England for Roosevelt Field, which at the time was the nation's top airport. R 34's flight would be the first flight from Europe to America and was made against the prevailing winds, which still bedevil modern airliners.

Besides the desire to achieve "firsts in aviation" a century ago, there was real competition between airplanes and airships for supremacy of the air. Invented before the airplane, airships were known for their sophistication and performance, especially the rigid airships called dirigibles.

The Germans led the advances with their Zeppelins. Adapted for World War I, they played a major role in reconnaissance and bombing. Flying high above London, they were feared in the nighttime skies. However, there were also memories of Zeppelins trapped in the glare of searchlights and when hit by anti-aircraft fire, igniting in huge fireballs. As the later Hindenburg disaster showed, these airships were also susceptible to tragedy in peacetime.

Fragments of crashed Zeppelins allowed the British to duplicate them and produced R 34, but it was completed after the war. The British decided to use R 34 to demonstrate the capabilities of dirigibles by crossing the Atlantic. It also offered potential sales opportunities since America only had blimps, which were significantly smaller. For longer journeys and greater payloads, both in passengers and cargo, the dirigibles were the future of airships.

Roosevelt Field was the intended destination since it was then a major U.S. Navy blimp base for patrolling the coastline. Thus it had trained ground crews and large hangars and its proximity to New York City would guarantee great press coverage.

At 1:42 a.m. on July 2, 1919, R 34 rose up from its English base and began the first crossing from Europe to America. Airships usually left at night to prevent hydrogen lost via heat expansion. With the NC 4 saga firing the imagination of the public, R 34 made front-page headlines. The fact that two stowaways were discovered on board added to America's interest. Hiding in the dirigible passageway maze was a young man; the other stowaway was a cat, later nicknamed Wopsie by the crew.

There was also drama to report. Due to the ferocity of the headwinds on its passage, R 34 was getting light on fuel and low on hydrogen lift. Running out of either would mean ditching at sea.

Back in Garden City, besides anticipation and now worry, a command meeting was held at the Garden City Hotel. Orders were given for the experienced ground crew to be sent to Boston, thinking R 34 would make it there. These ground crews were large; more than a 1,000 men were prepared for R 34's arrival. Hauling in a massive dirigible, or even smaller blimp, is no easy task. Ropes are dropped by the airship and ground crews pull it to earth, much like a yacht is bought into dock. In this case it would be like bringing the USS Intrepid into a New York City dock. In wind conditions, this can be especially dicey.

Many an airship had been damaged, some destroyed, by poor rope hauling by ground crews. Several months earlier, R 34's bid to beat NC 4 had been delayed by a ground crew mistake that had damaged her.

Arriving in Boston at dawn, the ground crew watched as R 34 flew right over them, continuing toward Long Island since the headwinds had abated. However, zephyrs being what they are, strong winds were again encountered and the backup ground crew was then sent from Roosevelt Field to Montauk.

This crew arrived in Montauk just as R 34 decided on its original destination, and they scrambled to return to Garden City. Back at Garden City Hotel headquarters, now there was another concern since only a handful of experienced ground crew still remained.

At 9:54 p.m. on July 6, R 34 arrived over Garden City and a cheer went up from the enormous crowd that had come out to see history. R 34 was so large that it could be seen from New York City. With most of ground crew still trying to get back to Garden City, the military commanders on the ground shanghaied every soldier they could and some of the more able-bodied civilians to prepare to grip the landing ropes to be dropped.

The confusion on the ground was apparent and to help organize things, R 34's pilot, Major Pitchard, parachuted to the ground. Thus he became the first person to arrive from Europe on a parachute. The reporters scrambled over to interview, asking his thoughts "on arriving in America." While dusting off his uniform, he replied, "Hard." A waiting motorcycle bought him to the assembled ad hoc ground crew, all looking up in awe as the monstrous airship circled. Each circle over Garden City took almost a mile, the pilot using the LIRR's Main Line and Garden City line tracks as his course. R 34 was desperately low on fuel.

After some quick instructions and some returning ground crew, the Down Ship signal was given and R 34 dived to a point that its dropped ropes could be gripped.

By provenance, the winds were light and R 34 was hauled in to tremendous cheers as only minutes of fuel remained. After the airship was secured, the officers and crew were feted at the Garden City Hotel with dignitaries from New York City and Washington, D.C. Parties and dinners were held at various houses in Garden City and at the hotel. The darlings of the press were the two stowaways.

While R 34 was moored via wires, refueling, provisioning and hydrogen cylinders were brought out to Garden City, the airship was re-gassed and some fabric tears repaired. However, the jerry-rigged system of mooring was found lacking. In one gust, R 34 escaped from its ground handlers and was about to abscond unmanned over the ocean when a cable shackle jammed. R 34 had bounced on the ground, which created some damage to the tail.

Originally scheduled for a week visit, the departure of R 34 was moved forward when weather reports indicated more severe winds would arrive on July 10th. So the crew was recalled immediately to the airship, including the stowaways, and a few minutes before midnight, the command rang out to the spectators' "all quiet" and then to the 400 men straining to hold the ropes, "let go all." Majestically and bathed in searchlight illumination, R 34 ascended. It flew first over the city, where searchlights lit it up and huge crowds cheered. Turning to the Atlantic, it began its eastward passage.

R 34 made the journey back to England to great acclaim. The two stowaways were forgiven. Unfortunately for some of the officers and crew, they were later killed in another airship accident. R 34 itself was destroyed by a violent windstorm a few years after its wonderful triumph.

Nowadays, people are impressed when the relatively small blimps used at sporting events appear. However, the dirigibles in flight were breathtaking. At a recent Garden City Library showing of the movie "The Hindenburg," two women mentioned that, as youths in Germany during the 1930s, they vividly remember the massive Hindenburg crossing the skies.

The tremendous interest in R 34 can be attested to by the wonderful large WPA mural in the Hempstead Post Office. It portrays R 34 at Roosevelt Field with onlookers and hydrogen tanks in the foreground. The actual site of the landing was in the vicinity of where the Avis Building on Old Country Road stood until recently. The Airship League of the British Empire put up a marker there commemorating R 34's flight. This marker is now in the Cradle of Aviation Museum, which also has other displays on the R 34 and NC 4 voyages.

The experiences gained in keeping R 34 tethered led to interest in having buildings like the Empire State Building dock dirigibles by having mooring towers built atop them. This mast was famously seen as what King Kong hung onto as he battled those pesky planes that eventually killed him.

For more information on Garden City's military history and heritage, visit the free exhibit which has been granted an extended showing at the Garden City Public Library until August 31.