Reagan Nationalist Airport

Walking to Terminal A at Reagan National Airport take a traveler through the old "historic lobby" of the original airfield. It's got a more artistic, less airport-ish feel than the rest of the place, with some Art Deco curves in the architecture and a general sense of pomp and circumstance. The adornment over the main doors toward the field are disconcerting: the American eagle is shown in a more "German" stance (closer wings, more rigid). To his right is an unsheathed sword; to his left an olive branch. That's in contrast to the proper American eagle, who holds an olive branch in his right talon, with arrows in the second place in his left. Worse still, below each faded eagle on the lintel of the door is a shining fasces in steel, standing out in relief from the masonry.

The lobby was built in 1940, before the U.S. went to war with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. It's just conjecture, but the symbolism may reflect an admiration of these powers that is most associated with Charles Lindbergh - America's greatest pilot. Coincidence?

Lest you think InstantReplay is the only place thinking about fascist symbolism, note this Boston Globe article from last week over a proposed monument in Gloucester, Mass.