This difficulty occurred, in part, because Denver and nearby cities were experiencing exponential growth during the 1980s, which made acquiring land an arduous task for Stapleton. Official construction of Denver International began on November 22, 1989, approximately 25 miles outside the city center of Denver (Bearup, 2015). In regard to the overall architecture of Denver International, it was designed to resemble the Rocky Mountains, and to reflect the existence of Denver being regarded as the Mile High city, as well as the Rocky Mountain city (Bearup, 2015). Upon completion of Denver International, albeit 16 months behind schedule and grossly over budget, a massive initiative was implemented called “push night,” on February 27, 1995 (Bearup, 2015). The purpose of this initiative was to relocate airport equipment and thousands of aviation-relevant vehicles from Stapleton to the newly constructed Denver International Airport (“Denver International Airport,” 2015). Today, Denver International Airport houses one of the tallest air traffic control towers in North America, at a height of 327 feet (“Fast facts,” …show more content…
Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the mayor of Denver to appoint a manager to head the Department of Aviation, who then answers directly to the mayor. According to Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution, this department has been defined as an enterprise, and therefore does not utilize taxpayer dollars for its operations (Ray,