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  • San Gabriel River Bridges - Georgetown TX
    The bridges over the north and south forks of the San Gabriel River in Georgetown, Texas are identical designs of a cantilevered-suspended span type bridge, where a steel unit is placed between cantilevered arms projecting beyond the main supports of the bridge.The Texas Highway Department designed the bridges, and the state and the United States Bureau of Public Roads provided funding. Contractor Dean Word built the two 367-foot long bridges between 1939 and 1940. The bridges carry four lanes of traffic on North Austin Avenue and are the main north-south route over the rivers into the business section of Georgetown.
  • Sebasticook Bridge - Clinton ME
    The Sebasticook Bridge is a 194 foot Polygonal Warren through truss with all verticals over the Sebasticook River on Pleasant Street in Clinton Maine. It was one of 26 bridges in March 1936 severely damaged or destroyed by a 500 year flood. A state highway commission report notes that the reconstruction of these bridges were U.S. Works Program Flood Relief projects and were handled under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Public Roads, U.S. Department of Agriculture. All bridges were placed under construction in 1936 with labor being provided on some by the Works Progress Administration. Construction was by the...
  • Somesville Bridge - Saco ME
    Somesville Bridge is a 340 ft long 5 span continuous steel girder bridge that spans the northerly branch of the Saco River between the cities of Saco and Biddeford in York County. This was one of 26 bridges that were badly damaged or destroyed by the 1936 flood. A state highway commission report notes that the reconstruction of these bridges were U.S. Works Program Flood Relief projects and were handled under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Public Roads, U.S. Department of Agriculture. All bridges were placed under construction in 1936 and the Somesville Bridge was completed in 1937 utilizing...
  • Soto Street Railroad Grade Underpass - Los Angeles CA
    One of 4 bridge projects in Los Angeles financed from funds set aside by the Federal Government to be used on grade separation projects. On these projects the State acted as an agent for the Federal Government, contracting and supervising the construction." "Another grade separation on Soto Street is between Pico Street and Washington Boulevard where the heavy vehicular traffic along Soto Street has been carried under two structures which support the Omaha to Los Angeles main line and the Pasadena tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad. AUTO TRAFFIC DETOURED This subway provides for clear width of fifty-six feet of roadway with five...
  • South Capitol Street SE Paving - Washington DC
    In 1941, the Washington Post reported that funds for paving projects in Congress Heights, Barry Farm, Bellevue, and Washington Highlands had been approved as part of a large roads program. The Public Roads Administration, a subdivision of the Federal Works Administration (FWA), was approved to pave the following stretches on and around South Capitol Street SE, across the Anacostia River:  Firth Sterling Avenue and South Capitol Street between Howard Road and Nichols Avenue SE; Overlook Avenue, from South Capitol Street to Fourth and Chesapeake Streets SW; South Capitol Street, from Atlantic Street to the District line. Work was to start...
  • South Gate Entrance Station - Yosemite National Park CA
    In 1934, the Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the creation of the South Gate Entrance Station to Yosemite National Park.  This followed enlargement of the park by the addition of the area from Wawona south and was done as part of the Wawona Road reconstruction.  The new entrance station included a parking area, entrance station, comfort station (restroom), residences for park rangers and a garage. Of this work, the restroom and ranger residence are original New Deal structures.   The Historic American Engineer Record (HAER) report on the Wawona Road provides these details:  "In 1934, roads around the South Entrance station were...
  • South Llano River Bridge - Junction TX
    The South Llano River Bridge is a 1424 foot steel through truss bridge with a 24-foot wide roadway that carries Texas State Highway Loop 481 over the South Llano River in Junction, Texas. The bridge replaced a functionally obsolete truss bridge with a 14-foot roadway that flooding had damaged in 1935. Although repaired, the Texas Highway Department engineers felt a sense of urgency to replace the old bridge. The new bridge was built between 1936 and 1937 with federal aid funds. A bronze plaque embedded in the railing at each entrance to the bridge identifies the Texas Highway Department and...
  • South Main Street Overpass - Fort Worth TX
    The South Main Street Overpass is a bridge with an overall length of 1,335 feet including approaches that currently carries South Main Street over multiple BNSF Railway tracks near downtown Fort Worth, Texas. The Texas Highway Department oversaw the construction of the bridge under a special United States Bureau of Public Roads grade crossing program. The overpass originally separated the grade of South Main Street from the tracks of the Texas & New Orleans Railroad and the Gulf Colorado & Sante Fe Railway. Contractor Purvis & Bertram built the bridge from 1936 to 1937 for $257,000 using federal aid funds.
  • South St. Mary's Street Underpasses - San Antonio TX
    In 1937, the Texas Highway Department and the United States Bureau of Public Roads built two underpasses on South St. Mary's Street in San Antonio, Texas to separate the grade of South St. Mary's Street from the railway lines of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad and the Texas and New Orleans Railroad. The Texas and New Orleans Railroad merged with Southern Pacific Railroad which was taken over by Union Pacific Railroad, which still uses the bridge. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad bridge is no longer in use and the railroad tracks have been removed.
  • Springfield Avenue Overpass - Berkeley Heights NJ
    The Bureau of Public Roads provided funds to construct an overpass carrying Springfield Avenue over the railroad just outside Berkeley Heights, N.J. The project was undertaken as part of a larger grade crossing elimination initiative during that era. Living New Deal believes this structure is no longer extant. New Jersey Board of Public Utility Commissioners: "A "Works Program-State Highway Department" project on which the Board initiated proceedings and on October 2nd, 1935, issued an order to eliminate the grade crossing Construction started April 27, 1936, and the project was opened to traffic in January, 1937. Funds from the Bureau of Public Roads were allotted to meet the entire...
  • State Highway 29 Bridge at the Colorado River - Burnet TX
    The construction of the Colorado River bridge was part of a larger THD undertaking to reroute SH 29 around Buchanan Dam, which was under construction beginning in 1931. The original roadway and the bridge across the Colorado at Bluffton were inundated by Lake Buchanan after completion of the dam in 1937. The bridge site was fixed 1 mile below the Buchanan Dam, at a location where a granite outcropping formed a ledge at the east bank of the river. This ledge was considered an ideal location for the eastern approach to the bridge. In a preliminary inspection report dated July 17,...
  • State Highway 9 Bridge at the Llano River - Mason TX
    On June 14, 1935, a devastating flood washed out the two truss spans and the center pier of the 1930 bridge of State Highway 9 across the Llano River in Mason County, Texas. The Texas Highway Department considered the reconstruction of the Llano River Bridge a priority as it isolated the town of Mason from the south. The Texas Highway Department applied to the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) for emergency relief highway funds provided for under Section 3 of the Hayden-Cartwright Act of 1934. In addition to extending federal relief funding established under the National Industrial Recovery Act, the...
  • State Highway 99 W - Orland CA
    The federal government (probably the Bureau of Public Roads) provided $75,000 for grading and shoulders on 15 miles of the county road between Orland and Willows, closely paralleling the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks.  This is part of today's State Highway 99W, which runs north-south just east of Interstate 5.
  • Sulphur Creek Bridge - Lampasas TX
    The Sulphur Creek Bridge is a three span steel stringer bridge that carries U.S. Highway 281 over Sulphur Creek in Lampasas, Texas. W. W. Vann & C0. built the bridge in 1934 under the direction of the Texas Highway Department and the United States Bureau of Public Roads.
  • Tamazulapa Rio Bridge - Tiucal Guatamala
    The November 1935 issue of California Highway & Public Works reported on New Deal work in the country of Guatamala. "PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT has approved a program of bridge construction work on the route of the Inter-American highway in Central America, the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads in charge of activities on the highway announces, Congress in June 1934, appropriated $1,000,000 to meet such expenses as the President in his discretion may deem necessary to enable the United States to cooperate with the several governments, members of the Pan-American Union, in connection with survey and construction of the proposed Inter-American Highway, As...
  • Ticonic Bridge - Waterville/Winslow ME
    The Ticonic bridge is a 575 Foot concrete and steel I beam structure that carries route 201 over the Kennebec River and connects Waterville and Winslow. The bridge was one of 26 bridges that were badly damaged or destroyed by a 500 year flood in March 1936. A large piece of ice hit one of the stone piers causing two of the bridge spans to crash into the river. A state highway commission report notes that the reconstruction of these bridges were U.S. Works Program Flood Relief projects and were handled under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Public Roads, U.S....
  • Tioga Road - Yosemite National Park CA
    New Deal agencies realigned and reconstructed 47 miles of the Tioga road from Crane Flat to Tioga Pass over the years 1933 to 1943.  They were not able, however, to complete the road down from Tioga Pass to Lee Vining (Mono Lake), which remained in deplorable condition until it was remade in 1961.  Funding for the Tioga Road project came from the Public Works Administration (PWA); the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) managed construction, using private companies; and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) did auxiliary work landscaping roadsides. The National Park Service (NPS) oversaw all work in the park.  The short-lived...
  • Toothrock Tunnel on Columbia River Highway - Bonneville OR
    The US Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) built the Toothrock Tunnel No. 4555  on the Columbia Gorge Highway near Bonneville, Oregon. Heading east on Interstate-84, as one approaches the Bonneville Dam, vehicles pass through an 837-foot, semicircular bore into Tooth Rock. Today, Toothrock Tunnel's artful design of basalt rockwork and concrete construction can be appreciated for its rustic, historic appearance as well as its 'natural' fit with the mountainous characteristics of the area. When plans were unveiled for it in 1935, however, it represented major improvements in modern highway design with its "skewed arch portals" fitting topographic conditions and a state-or-the-art lighting...
  • Trail Ridge Road Completion - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
    Trail Ridge Road is the main route across Rocky Mountain National Park It is a marvel of highway engineering and provides stunning views of the park, particularly as it traverses the alpine regions above timber line. The road is 48 miles long and its summit near the Alpine Ranger Station is over 12,000 feet.  It is the highest continuous paved road in North America and is now a National Scenic Byway. Trail Ridge Road was built by the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) and its contractors in 1929-32, to replace the old Fall River road.  It was a fully engineered, graded and...
  • Trail Ridge Road Rock Walls - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
    Trail Ridge Road is the main route across Rocky Mountain National Park, built in 1929 to 1932 to replace the old Fall River road.  It is a marvel of highway engineering and provides stunning views of the park, particularly as it traverses the alpine regions above timber line. The road is 48 miles long and its summit near the Alpine Ranger Station is over 12,000 feet.  It is the highest continuous paved road in North America and is now a National Scenic Byway. In building the road, the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) and its contractors built several miles of low guard...
  • Tulare Lindsay Highway - Lindsay CA
    A stretch of six miles of Tulare Lindsay Highway (Avenue 232) was widened and resurfaced with a federal grant of $25,000.   The money presumably came from the Bureau of Public Roads, but this has not been confirmed.
  • Tuolumne River Bridge - Yosemite National Park CA
    New Deal agencies realigned and reconstructed the Old Tioga road from 1933 to 1943, from Crane Flat to Tuolumne Meadows.  An important element of the road project was the bridge over the Tuolumne River, just east of the Tuolumne Meadows campground. The bridge was constructed in 1933-34. Funding came from the Public Works Administration (PWA); the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) managed construction, using private companies; and the National Park Service (NPS) oversaw all work in the park. The Tuolumne River bridge is a modern design of steel beams and concrete, but is dressed up with stone siding to accord with the...
  • Twenty-First Street NW Paving - Washington DC
    In 1941, the Washington Post reported the start of a $1,158,000 road paving program carried out by the Public Roads Administration division of the Federal Works Administration (FWA). One of the streets slated to be paved was 21st Street between Virginia Avenue and C Street, NW. Although the street has been repaved since 1941, the New Deal played a role in its continued maintenance.
  • U.S. Highway 395 - Bridgeport CA
    In 1934, 3.1 miles of old California Route 23 (now US 395) from Point Ranch to the Bodie Road, south of Bridgeport, were graded and surfaced at a cost of $45,000.  Funds came from the federal government Bureau of Public Roads.
  • Union Pacific Railroad Underpass - Houston TX
    In 1936, the Texas Highway Department and the United States Bureau of Public Roads built an underpass to separate the grade of Wayside Drive and the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad (now Union Pacific).
  • Union Terminal Company Underpass - Dallas TX
    The State of Texas chartered the Union Terminal Company on March 16, 1912. The mission of the company was to build a central terminal in Dallas for the seven railroads then serving the city. The company opened the Dallas Union Terminal in October 1916 and was also operating five miles of track within Dallas. At the peak of its usage, as many as eighty trains stopped each day at the station. In 1936, the Texas Highway Department with funding from the United States Bureau of Public Roads built a triple underpass to separate the grade of the Union Terminal Company track...
  • University Avenue Overhead Bridge - University-Oxford MS
    T. M. Strider and Company was in charge of construction for the four-lane steel-reinforced concrete bridge replacement for the old two-lane wooden bridge across the Hilgard Cut, connecting the University with Oxford. The original cut was hand dug by enslaved Africans in 1857 in order to enable the Illinois Central Railroad to provide service to Oxford-University, and was the deepest cut in the ICRR system. The rails were laid along the cut, which is now the Gertrude Ford Boulevard. University Avenue was scheduled for closure for six months in order to construct the new bridge with an estimated cost of...
  • University Avenue Overpass - Berkeley CA
    The federal Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) funded construction of the railroad overpass on University Avenue in Berkeley – which today leads into the Interstate 80 freeway.  At the time, it was known as an "overhead".  The overpass is still in use today. The overpass is almost 1,000 feet long and carries four lanes of traffic, two in each direction.  It was jointly designed by state highway engineers, city engineering staff and engineering officials of the Southern Pacific Railroad.  The builders were Heafey-Moore Co. and Fredrickson & Watson Co., private contractors.  An article in California Highway and Public Works gives these details: "The...
  • US 281 Bridge at the Brazos River - Santo TX
    The US 281 Bridge at the Brazos River is a through truss bridge consisting of one three-span continuous unit 656 1/2 feet long and 12 steel I-beam approach spans, each 40 feet long, for an overall length of 1,138 feet.The three spans form a continuous Warren truss with top chords resembling the curve seen in suspension bridges The bridge provides a crossing over the Brazos River on U.S. Highway 281 in southeastern Palo Pinto County. By September 1938, the Brazos River bridge project had been placed on the 1939 Regular Federal Aid Program. Texas Highway Department engineers designed the bridge. The...
  • Utah Avenue NW Paving - Washington DC
    A 1941 article in the Washington Post reported the imminent start of paving on Utah Avenue NW between Nebraska Avenue and Pinehurst Circle at the Maryland border, to be conducted by the Bureau of Public Roads, a division of the Federal Works Administration (FWA).
  • Valley Blvd. and Soto St. Grade Separation - Los Angeles CA
    "FOUR grade separation projects recently completely in Los Angeles are at Mission Road, Soto Street and Valley Boulevard, Soto St between Pico Street and Washington Boulevard, and at Firestone Boulevard. These projects have been financed from funds set aside by the Federal Government to be used on grade separation projects. On these projects the State acted as an agent for the Federal Government, contracting and supervising the construction. The projects were intended to relieve labor and carried the condition that" as far as practical, labor was to come from the relief rolls and that labor be confined to one hundred...
  • Village Bridge - Detroit ME
    The Village Bridge is 94 foot Warren pony truss bridge over East Branch Sebasticook River on ME 69/ME 220 in Detroit Maine. It was one of 26 bridges that were badly damaged or destroyed by a 500 year flood in March 1936. A Maine state Highway commission report notes that the reconstruction of these bridges were U.S. Works Program Flood Relief projects and were handled under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Public Roads, U.S. Department of Agriculture. All bridges were placed under construction in 1936 with labor supplied to some by the Works Progress Administration.
  • Washington Avenue Overpass - Piscataway NJ
    The Bureau of Public Roads provided funds to construct an overpass carrying Washington Avenue over the railroad in New Market, Piscataway Township, N.J. The project was undertaken as part of a larger grade crossing elimination initiative during that era. Living New Deal believes this structure has since been replaced. New Jersey Board of Public Utility Commissioners: "A "Works Program-State Highway Department" project on which the Board initiated proceedings and on January 7, 1936, issued an order to eliminate the grade crossing at Washington Avenue. The proceedings originally affected three grade crossings located in close proximity to each other on Prospect Street, Main Street and Washington Avenue but the...
  • Wawona Road Completion - Yosemite National Park CA
    New Deal agencies played a major role in the transformation of the narrow and dangerous Wawona wagon trail into a safe and comfortable route into Yosemite Valley. The route from the South Entrance to the Valley floor is 27 miles.  It is one of three access roads to Yosemite Valley, along with the El Portal road and Big Oak Flat Road. The National Park Service and the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) signed a Memorandum of Agreement in July 1925, authorizing the planning and construction of new roads within Yosemite National Park. Surveying was begun in 1928 and initial construction was...
  • West Buxton Bridge - Hollis/Buxton ME
    The West Buxton bridge is a 607 foot Metal Continuous Rivet-Connected Polygonal Warren Through Truss with fixed and Approach Spans: Metal Stringer (Multi-Beam) that carries the West Buxton Road (Moderation Street) over the Saco River. This was one of 26 bridges that were badly damaged or destroyed by a 500 year flood in March 1936. A 1936 report by the state highway commission notes that the reconstruction of these bridges were U.S. Works Program Flood Relief projects and were handled under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Public Roads, U.S. Department of Agriculture. This bridge is one of only three...
  • Weymouth Road Overpass - Hammonton NJ
    The Bureau of Public Roads provided funds for construction of a bridge carrying Weymouth Road over the railroad in Hammonton, N.J. However, since no crossing at this location is extant, it is possible that they mean the Broemel Pl. underpass. The project was undertaken as part of a larger grade crossing elimination initiative during that era. New Jersey Board of Public Utility Commissioners: "A "Works Program-State Highway Department" project on which the Board initiated proceedings and on October 2, 1935, issued an order to eliminate the grade crossing. Construction started in October, 1936, and the project was completed in November, 1937. Funds from the...
  • Wildcat Creek Bridge - Carmel Highlands/Big Sur CA
    Wildcat Creek bridge was built during the New Deal as part of the Big Sur highway project (former state highway 56, now state highway 1 or the Cabrillo Highway). It is one of several New Deal aided bridges and highway segments along the route.  Wildcat Creek bridge was probably begun just before the New Deal but was completed in mid-1933. The California coast highway was an ambitious project begun in the early days of automobiles and state highway building, in which California was a leader.  The first efforts to build the road took place in Southern California in the early 1910s....
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