Known as the “Air Gateway between the Americas,” the Pan American Seaplane Base and Terminal Building played an important role in the history of modern air transportation and stood as an outstanding example of air terminal design. In 1929, Pan American Airways began seaplane service between the United States and Latin America at the site of the former Miami Naval Air Station, which had been destroyed by the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926. Pan Am built its first hangar in 1931, and its first passengers departed from a nearby houseboat terminal until the permanent terminal building was completed in 1934. During the 1930s, the base became one of the nation’s busiest commercial seaplane airports. In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed through the base on his way to Casablanca, the first time a U.S. president traveled by air while in office. The last Pan Am flight departed in 1945, and the site was sold to the City of Miami the following year. Some hangars were demolished, and in 1954 the terminal building became Miami City Hall, with the main waiting room serving as the Miami City Commission’s chambers. In its time, this Art Deco building was the largest and most modern marine air terminal in the world. Its painted frieze includes images from aviation history and the signs of the zodiac. The seaplane base was designed for both aerial and land views, with a long straight entry drive and median representing an airplane’s fuselage, maintenance hangars angled in a V-shape to represent wings and point toward the terminal, and a circular revolving globe sculpture at the main entrance used for determining the movement of planes. Its design became a model for air terminals in the United States and abroad, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and in 2007 the City of Miami received a historic preservation grant from the Florida Division of Historical Resources to assist in restoring the building.