Moffett Field Complex, California

Moffett Field was an early military hub for what would become Silicon Valley. It was established in 1930 to house the Macon, a giant aircraft-carrying blimp built by the government to serve as a surveillance platform for the West Coast. After World War Two, surveillance technologies on and around Moffett would support the high tech industries which would come to dominate the region, fueled by entities like NASA’s Ames Research Center and the Air Force’s Satellite Test Center, both built at Moffett, and Lockheed’s sprawling satellite plant next to the field. Today, though Lockheed is still there, the base is surrounded by software companies, and much of it, including the runways, the three blimp hangars, and golf course, is leased to Google, through 2074.