Almost as soon as it opened, there were calls to close Hoover Field and build a large, modern airport at another location.

[10] A fire at Hoover Field on July 3, 1928, destroyed eight planes and the lone hangar, causing $100,000 in damages ($1.275 million in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars).

[12] Berliner's finances were significantly damaged by the fire, and he sold his interest in Hoover Field to Elvin W. Robertson's Mount Vernon Airways on July 20, 1928.

[22] The airport added acreage and improved its facilities, and in February 1928 Funkhouser, Fahy and the others formed Seaboard Airways.

[27] The field was dramatically enlarged (and the coastline of the Potomac River altered) in April 1928 when Washington Airport contracted to receive tens of thousands of cubic yards of earth, dug during the construction of the Federal Triangle complex of buildings in the District of Columbia, and used them to fill in the sides and ends of the field.

[32] The expansion effort ran into serious problems in September 1929 when the Smoot Sand and Gravel Corp. began constructing a rock wall along the high-water mark of the Potomac River.

[34] Although this changed the company's plans, work still went ahead on the razing of the Arlington Beach amusement park, construction of three paved new runways on the theme park grounds, a new paved runway on the site of the existing airport, razing of the old hangar and office building, construction of a new hangar 160 feet (49 m) by 100 feet (30 m) in size and a new and larger office building.

[37] Forty-five days later, however, some shareholders in the company sued the Funkhouser, Fahy, and others, arguing that they had reneged on a deal to buy them out and further alleging that they were driving the airport into bankruptcy with their profligate spending.

[38] As the suit lingered in the courts, Arlington County commissioners stopped the burning of trash at the landfill next to Hoover Field in mid-1932 (but not the one next to Washington Airport).

[19] A month later, in a continuing effort to improve safety, the airport paid local electric power and telephone companies to bury their lines obstructing the landing and take-off lanes.

[41][42] Washington Airport authorities conditioned their acceptance on the payment of $25,000 a year and the closure of Military Road.

[41] The lease proposal, however, was complicated by the federal government's claim to the Potomac River up to the high-water mark on the Virginia shore.

The creek and a large portion of the bay had silted up and turned to dry land after the construction of the Long Bridge in 1903 changed the flow of water, and it was this property which the businesses were built on, and which had been sold to Washington Airport.

[43] The Supreme Court's decision in Smoot Sand & Gravel two years earlier did not apply, parties in the dispute said, because the Roaches Run land had been created naturally rather than artificially.

[21][47] Ira C. Eaker was named general manager of Atlantic Seaboard,[48] and for about nine months the two airfields were owned by the same company (although they did not merge into a single field).

United States Air Transport was taken over in June 1929 by Federal Aviation Corporation, an airline based in New York City.

[49] Federal Aviation announced it was buying an additional 104 acres (42 ha) (which included the Arlington Beach theme park) for $675,000, with the goal of expanding into a six-runway airport with one runway dedicated solely to departing flights.

[61] The evening after the Hoover Field auction, the secret buyer of Washington Airport emerged: National Airport Corporation, a division of National Aviation Corp.[61] Almost unknown in aviation circles, within 24 hours it purchased Hoover Field from the Ludingtons for an undisclosed sum.

[63][64] It remained open as a private field for small aircraft,[65] but closed on September 16, 1941, when the United States Department of War purchased Washington-Hoover Airport for $1 million to construct The Pentagon.