Completion Year: 1940

Originally named the Willamette Highway Tunnel, the 905 feet-long Salt Creek Tunnel completed the Oregon Forest Highway Project that ran through remote areas of the Willamette National Forest to link US Highway 99 near Eugene with US 97 on the east side of the Cascades. The Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) designed the tunnel and its masonry rock portals and contracted with the Portland firm Orino-Birkemeier & Saremai to construct the project in December 1937. The length of the tunnel along with the remote location and rugged terrain introduced challenges with its construction. Oregon Department of Transportation historian Robert Hadlow notes...

The Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior building contains one of the largest collections of New Deal art in Washington DC, by some of the finest American artists of the time.  Two statues in exterior Court EE, outside the cafeteria, are by Maurice Glickman, "Negro Mother and Child," and Louis Slobodkin, "Abe Lincoln".  Both are in bronze with a black serpentine base and stand around 10 feet tall, including the base. Both are done in an Art Deco style. The statues were commissioned under the Public Works of Art Project and installed by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts in 1940. The...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Baltic School in Baltic SD. The structure served as a public school. Its current use is unknown. A building plaque reads: "WPA project number 3883."

Two 'WPA 1940' stampings are located in concrete sidewalks along the NE side of Pacific Terrace. One stamping exists on the the block between Melrose and Portland Streets. An even better-quality WPA stamping can be seen at the corner of Del Moro St and Pacific Terrace which also includes a stamping of 'Pacific Terrace' nearby. Multiple original sections of WPA sidewalks survive along the NE side of Pacific Terrace between Melrose and Van Ness Streets.

In 1939, the Public Works Administration (PWA) contributed $70,375 towards an extension of the Oxon Run Interceptor, a large sewer line in southeast Washington DC. This was part of a large-scale New Deal program of new and extended sewers (storm and sanitary) for the District of Columbia. The original section of the Oxon Run Interceptor had been installed in 1938-1939 using municipal funds only (i.e., not PWA). It started at the Blue Plains wastewater treatment plant and from there ran in an easterly or northeasterly direction. PWA funds extended the Interceptor another 4,925 feet, from roughly 1st Street to Thirteenth Street SE....

Along Main Street, between 1st and Poplar exist a small number of concrete curb stops located at asphalted, angled parking stalls that flow directly from the roadway heading north. These curb stops were part of a WPA street improvement project in 1940. The southbound lane along Main Street also contained angled parking stalls but have recently been converted to vertical parking lanes and the original concrete curb stops removed.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the National Youth Administration (NYA) completed work for the Fair Park in Tyler TX. This is the location where the East Texas State Fair is held. In 1940 many old buildings were demolished and replaced by WPA workmen, including the headquarters building. Ornamental fence set around the pavilion and ornamental spiral staircases was made by NYA shops in Marshall.

In Spring 1939, the DC government used funds from the Public Works Administration (PWA) to award contracts for the Outfall Relief Sewer project, a large sewer line to run from the Poplar Point Pumping Station to a point near the Blue Plains Disposal Plant (today’s Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant). The Diamond Construction Company was awarded a contract for $423,116 to build one section of the line, while the Wagner-Larsen Construction Company contracted to build a second section for $293,049. Work on the Outfall Relief Sewer started on May 17, 1939, and was completed in mid-1940. This project was part of...

The McKee Building on the campus of Western Carolina University was built in 1938-39 as part of a six-building expansion of what was then Western Carolina Teacher’s College. The North Carolina General Assembly appropriated $110,000 for a new training school for teachers in 1937. An additional $90,000 came from a Public Works Administration grant. The brick structure has been refurbished and it currently houses several academic departments at Western Carolina University. Some of the original woodwork and chalkboard remain. It is named for Gertrude Dills McKee, first woman elected to the N.C. Senate. She served in Raleigh from 1931-1948 and was also...

Coolidge Senior High School in northwest Washington DC was built in 1938-40 with federal aid to the District of Columbia Education Department.   An appropriation of $350,000 was made by Congress in 1937 to the District Commissioners (the municipal government).  Since the full cost of the school building was $1,500,000, additional funds must have come from Congress, the District or the Public Works Administration (PWA).  More information is needed on this. Coolidge High School was built to relieve crowding at Theodore Roosevelt High School, on property that the District of Columbia had purchased five years before.  Some local citizens associations wanted to name the...