The Denver International Airport opened in 1995, it ran 16 months behind schedule, and cost $4.8 billion (more than double the original estimate). Then, it immediately began generating conspiracy theories that have never stopped.
The Blue Horse That Killed Its Creator
At the airport's entrance is a 32-foot-tall blue mustang with glowing red eyes, officially titled Blue Mustang but universally known as "Blucifer" by Denver locals. The sculpture was created by the New Mexico artist, Luis Jiménez. In 2006, before the piece was completed, a section of the horse fell on Jiménez in his studio and severed an artery in his leg. He died from the injury. The horse was finished by his family and installed in 2008. It continues to stand at the entrance with its red eyes illuminated, staring at passengers headed to the airport.
The Largest Airport in North America (By Land)
DIA covers 53 square miles and is larger than the city of San Francisco. The massive scale was deliberate where Denver positioned the airport far east of the city, specifically to allow for future expansion without the noise complaints that plagued Stapleton, the old downtown airport. The runway system alone has six runways (with a seventh planned) oriented to handle simultaneous landings and departures in near-blizzard conditions. Denver's Front Range weather is severe, and DIA was engineered for it, for example. At the same time, the white tent roof structure over the terminal was specifically designed to resemble the Rocky Mountain peaks and is also structurally capable of bearing enormous snow loads.
The Murals That Started a Thousand Reddit Threads
The baggage claim level in the main terminal is decorated with two enormous murals by artist Leo Tanguma. The first, Children of the World Dream of Peace, depicts a massive uniformed soldier with a gas mask and a sword, surrounded by burning cities, dead children, and refugees before resolving into a hopeful second panel of children collecting weapons and giving them to a Guatemalan boy who beats them into a plowshare. The second mural, In Peace and Harmony with Nature, shows a world consumed by fire and animals going extinct, before resolving into renewed ecological abundance. Both murals are explicitly about the horrors of war and environmental destruction as preconditions for peace. But they are also extremely intense for a public airport.
The Underground Baggage System
DIA was supposed to debut the world's most advanced automated baggage system: 21 miles of underground tunnels, 4,000 cars on electric tracks, computer-directed to direct bags from check-in to the right plane in minutes. The system took so long to debug that airlines gave up waiting and installed a conventional backup system. (United Airlines, the only carrier that used the automated system, tore it out entirely in 2005.) The tunnels still exist and some carry a simpler conventional baggage conveyor, but the rest sit empty beneath the airport, which naturally fuels every underground bunker theory that has ever been attached to DIA.
The Gargoyles in Suitcases
Throughout the terminal, bronze gargoyles sit inside open suitcases. The airport authority says they're "keeping watch over travellers' belongings" and are meant to be whimsical. "Sure.".
The Time Capsule
Beneath the terminal floor is a time capsule buried, and not to be opened until 2094. A dedication plaque at the airport identifies it as being sealed "in the hopes and dreams of the people of Colorado for their children and their children's children." But who put what inside is not fully public record.
Practical Notes
DIA is 23 miles from downtown Denver. The University of Colorado A Line commuter rail connects the airport to Denver's Union Station in 37 minutes for $10.50 and is by far the cheapest and most reliable option into the city. Also, the airport's Great Hall renovation has been underway since 2019 and continues to make certain security procedures more chaotic than you might expect.