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The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded a major increase in the height of the O'Shaughnessy Dam, which creates Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.  The dam had been completed by the city of San Francisco in 1923, after years of controversy over flooding the magnificent Hetch Hetchy Valley, the smaller twin of Yosemite Valley.  This was the height of the dam-building era in America. When San Francisco sought to expand the reservoir's capacity, the PWA provide funding for the project, which was completed in 1937-38. The dam was raised by 86 feet and the width of the dam enlarged at the same time.   "In...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) financed the construction of Lake Anza in Tilden Park.  The lake is formed by a dam on Wildcat Creek which flows through the park (apparently, the lake drowned a lovely 9-foot waterfall on Wildcat Creek). Lake Anza was created initially for water supply for the Tilden Golf Course and other facilities, but afterward it was developed for recreation like swimming and boating.  Before the lake could be developed, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) teams cleared vegetation in the  area with hand tools; Guerin Brothers and other contractors, used earth-moving machinery to construct the dam.  Work was completed in...

The former Camarillo State Hospital for the Insane was closed in 1997 and became the CSU-Channel Islands campus. The old hospital was begun in the early 1930s, but when the Roosevelt Administration came into office, the Public Works Administration (PWA) took over funding the project in 1934. With the aid from the PWA, the hospital was completed in 1936.  At the time, it was the largest and most advanced mental institution west of the Mississippi.  

"Scenic View of the Village," 15' x 12' oil on canvas, painted by Belle Baranceanu, is a mural located in the La Jolla Post Office, La Jolla CA. 

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed the Doyle Drive approach to the Golden Gate Bridge (not itself a New Deal project).  This roadway carried traffic from city streets in the Marina District through the Presidio of San Francisco, which at the time was still a U.S. Army base and headquarters of the 6th Army.   The project included, besides the roadway itself, the carrying of underground electricity, telephone, sewer and water lines. The Doyle Drive approach was demolished and replaced by a new approach road, Presidio Boulevard, in 2009-2015.  The new approach is much larger and passes through twin 850 foot...

The Henry J. Daly Building is the former District of Columbia Municipal Center, built in 1939-41 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) (which was incorporated into the Federal Works Administration in 1939 in a major government reorganization).  The Municipal Building was meant to replace the old City Hall and consolidate the District's local government functions, but has mostly been used as the DC police headquarters. The PWA made an initial allocation of $5.7 million in 1938 (Evening Star 1938) , but the final allocation was evidently $7.75 million (National Archives).  Sources differ over whether this was a grant or...

The Langston Terrace Dwellings, a large-scale public housing project, was built under the New Deal from 1935 to 1938.  It was the first U.S. Government-funded public housing project in Washington DC and only the second in the nation.  Initial funding came from the Public Works Administration (PWA); later the U.S. Housing Authority stepped in to complete the job. The International Style complex was designed by prominent African-American architect Hilyard Robinson, a native Washingtonian. With its handsome art and style, it embodied Robinson's belief in the ability of fine buildings and art to inspire and uplift residents. Construction began in 1935, with African...

The Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, or BARC, is a unit of the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. BARC is the largest agricultural research complex in the world. It was founded in 1910 and greatly expanded under the New Deal.  Several New Deal agencies were involved in this massive  project, presumably working under the direction of the USDA's Bureau of Plant Industry (which later became part of the Agricultural Research Service). To begin with, the Public Works Administration (PWA) purchased the land and paid for clearing, drainage, water lines, roads, walkways and an irrigation system.  The...

Robert F. Gates painted the mural, "Montgomery County Farm Women's Market," in 1939 for the Bethesda post office, which was closed in 2012. It shows a woman feeding animals next to women selling produce at the Farm Women’s Market, which opened on Wisconsin Avenue in 1932.   The mural was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. Robert Gates later became head of the Art Department at American University. In 1938, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department to look at the sketches of the Gates mural. She later wrote in her diary the sketch was “charming,” and “I think...

The New Deal contributed substantially to the betterment of Rock Creek Park in the 1930s.  This involved a number of federal agencies. Rock Creek Park is a key greenway in the District of Columbia and, at 1750 acres, is almost twice the size of Central Park in New York.  It was established by Congress in 1890, making it officially a National Park at the time.  It featured prominently in the far-reaching plans for the District of Columbia by the McMillan Commission in 1901-02 and the Olmsted Brothers report of 1918, which envisioned a major park with a scenic parkway running through it. In...