Richmond Naval Air Station: From Blimps to Chimps

Most visitors to Zoo Miami are unaware that the zoo occupies 600 acres of the 2,000 acres that once belonged to Richmond Naval Air Station - a WWII blimp base. In 1945, a hurricane started a fire which destroyed the hangars and blimps, along with hundreds of aircraft and vehicles. When its life as a blimp base ended, several other agencies developed a presence here including the University of Miami and branches of the Armed Forces. The CIA even used facilities here to direct attempts to overthrow Fidel Castro's regime in the 1960s. Those failed attempts may have had unforeseen consequences -- the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of President Kennedy.