This classic 1963 photo profiles Hangar One at Moffett Federal Airfield in Northern California. The towering hangar looks like something that arrived mysteriously from both the future and the past, a man-made colossus that seems to be the result of some higher creature. One of the world’s largest free-standing structures, Hangar One is 200-feet tall and spans eight acres. It was built during the Depression to house the U.S.S. Macon dirigible, an aircraft carrier that was the biggest airship in the world when it launched in 1933. But damage caused by a storm in 1935 buried the Macon deep in the Pacific Ocean. Today, a restored Hangar One is used by NASA. From a 2006 Spiegel article about the wreck of the Macon:

“The tragedy unfolded unusually slowly for an aviation catastrophe: The crew fought to control the USS Macon for more than an hour. US naval officers threw fuel canisters overboard in an attempt to reduce the weight of their vessel. The canisters imploded on their way to the ocean floor. Meanwhile, the Macon — the largest rigid airship ever constructed in the United States — sank inexorably downward, the safety of the Moffett Field hangar just within reach.

The Macon hit the water surface only five kilometers (three miles) off the Californian coast, along the latitude of the Point Sur lighthouse near Monterey, on Feb. 12, 1935. The zeppelin broke apart and sank into the deep water. Two of the 83 crew members died — the low number of deaths is likely due to the fact that the Macon sank in slow motion.

Neither enemy fire nor sabotage was to blame for the giant airship’s doom (and a giant it was: longer than three 747 jets parked nose to tail). A heavy storm above the picturesque stretch of Californian coast known as Big Sur tore off the Macon’s vertical tail fin. The airship’s structural framework was so badly damaged that the Macon broke apart when it hit the water.”

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Trial flight of the Macon, 1933: