- [Narrator] In New York City, (dramatic music) designers, engineers, and construction workers... - Watch the boom.

- are on a once in a lifetime mission to build an extraordinary airport.

The city's new LaGuardia Airport has a budget of more than $8 billion and will be America's first new airport in more than 25 years.

Inside, the team is completing the installation of the airport's vast new baggage system.

The new airport must be able to process 40 million bags each year.

Getting the right bag to the right aircraft requires an ingenious system.

- Each bag is given a bag tag.

This bag tag becomes basically the license plate of the bag.

This bag tag has a unique identifier that will then be tracked throughout the entire system.

- [Narrator] A network of scanners reads the tags and automatically directs the bags left or right to the correct loading bay.

Vertical sorting units also move bags up or down a level, if needed.

Before all baggage moves airside, the conveyors shuttle it through security.

- The new state-of-the-art technology that we have in security can pick up anything, but if it picks it up, it's dealing with it, dealing with it swiftly.

- [Narrator] With up to 6,000 bags to check every hour, how can engineers ensure a suspicious bag is not sent on to the aircraft?

Special explosive detection machines scan every bag.

If they raise a red flag, bags are rerouted to TSA agents on the lower floor for hand checking, while cleared bags must go up a level to reach the gates.

Vertical sorting units, VSUs, are an essential part of the security system.

Their conveyors divert the bags either up or down, depending on whether they are cleared or not.

The VSUs automatically ensure a suspicious bag never makes it onto an aircraft, keeping the skies safe for passengers.

- It's protection of life, protection of property, then resume operations.