In 1932, flying across the Atlantic, alone and all in one go, was still risky. The first nonstop Atlantic flight had been completed less than 15 years earlier, in 1919. It began in St. John's, Newfoundland, and ended in Clifden, Ireland. When Amelia Earhart decided to make the flight, no woman had ever done it alone.
Earhart had flown across the Atlantic before, in 1928, but as a passenger. "I was just baggage, like a sack of potatoes," she told the flight's organizer. "Maybe someday I'll try it alone."
In May of 1932, she did. She left from this airfield in Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, and a little less than 15 hours later, after a long and difficult flight, she landed in Northern Ireland.
There's a simple reason why so many early aviators started their trans-Atlantic crossings from Newfoundland—it's about as close to Europe as you can get. Outside of St. John's at Cape Spear, there's a point that goes further east into the Atlantic than any other in North America. Flying from Newfoundland meant crossing the Atlantic by the shortest route possible.