The Texas Highway Department and the United States Bureau of Public Roads built the International & Great Northern Railroad (now Union Pacific) Underpass in 1937 to separate the grade between the railroad tracks and San Pedro Avenue in San Antonio,… read more
On January 9, 1936, the Austin City Council adopted a resolution to request the Texas State Highway Commission to seek federal funds to separate the grade of Enfield Road from the International–Great Northern Railroad tracks. The Highway Commission with assistance… read more
Interstate 70 travels through Glenwood Canyon, east of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The highway follows the route of the first road through the canyon, constructed under the Federal Bureau of Public Roads during the New Deal.
The Texas Highway Department and the United States Bureau of Public Roads built an underpass in 1935 to separate the grade between the Texas & New Orleans Railroad tracks and U. S. Highway 77 in Schulenburg, Texas.
The Bureau of Public Roads provided funds to construct an overpass carrying Lake avenue over the railroad in Scotch Plains, N.J. The project was undertaken as part of a larger grade crossing elimination initiative during that era. New Jersey Board of Public… read more
Cement bridge with off set railings. Bridge is on 2nd Street (I-20 BL) and spans Lone Wolf Creek. Marker Text: LONE WOLD CREEK BRIDGE REBUILT IN 1936 BY THE TEXAS HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT ——————– UNITED STATES BUREAU OF PUBLIC ROADS ——————-… read more
The Lord Bridge is a 92 foot steel and concrete stringer bridge that carries the Loggin Rd. over Marsh Stream. It was one of 26 bridges badly damaged or destroyed by a 500 year flood in March 1936. A state… read more
New Deal agencies played a major role in the transformation of the narrow and dangerous Wawona wagon trail into a safe and comfortable route from the South Entrance of Yosemite National Park to Yosemite Valley. As part of this project,… read more
The McCoy Creek bridge in Mendocino County is a timber stringer trestle bridge on state highway 271 – which used to be the Redwood Highway before U.S. 101 was constructed. It was renovated in 1966 with a steel stringer sub-unit… read more
Red oaks line a section of McLoughlin Boulevard on its southern entry into the City of Portland. The nearly ninety-year-old trees are the legacy of a highway beautification project funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1934. The Oregon… read more
As motorists travel southbound on the Milwaukie section of McLoughlin Boulevard they pass through a corridor of Giant Redwood trees. The Public Works Administration funded the planting of these Sequoia Giantea in 1934. The Oregon State Highway Commission selected six… read more
The Middle Bridge is 296 foot Warren (Riveted) Through Truss bridge that carries Route 197 (Patterson Road) over the Eastern River in Dresden Maine. The Middle Bridge was completed in 1936 to replace a previous bridge after the Flood of… read more
DON WARREN, Senior Bridge Engineer February 1937 issue of California Highway and Public Works magazine: “… The projects were intended to relieve labor and carried the condition that as far as practical, labor was to come from the relief rolls… read more
The Montopolis Bridge is a historic Parker through truss bridge across the Colorado River in Austin, Texas. On June 15, 1935, the City of Austin suffered a devastating flood along the Colorado River. The original Montopolis bridge, built by Travis… read more
The Morse Bridge is a 285-foot steel through arch bridge over the Androscoggin River on ME 108 Bridge Street in Rumford. Although constructed by the city and state in 1935, a year later in March 1936, was moved off its… read more
The New Deal carried out a major renovation of the National Mall, the green centerpiece of Washington DC. Funding was provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and labor power by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). As of 1939, the… read more
Neahkahnie Mountain rises almost perpendicularly, 1600 feet from the Pacific Ocean. This headland posed an engineering and budgetary challenge to the completion of the Oregon Coast Highway until funding was provided by the Bureau of Public Roads and labor was… read more
Referred to as either Necarney Creek or Sam Reed Bridge, this bridge was a critical part of the completion of the Neahkahnie Road section of Highway 101, As described on a Oregon Department of Transportation plaque at the Neahkahnie Mountain… read more
Completed in 1939, the biggest bridge on what was then the newly constructed Wolf Creek Highway (now the Sunset Highway) spans the 600-foot-deep Nehalem River gorge. It eliminated a three-mile detour on this major highway between Portland and the northern… read more
The Bureau of Public Roads provided funds to construct a grade separation for Newton-Sparta Road and the railroad in Andover 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 is no… read more
The Texas Highway Department and the United States Bureau of Public Roads designed and financed several underpasses on Nogalitos Street in San Antonio, Texas. Built in 1937 by Brown & Root, the project took Nogalitos Street under Cassiano Street, The… read more
The Oakland-Merlin Overpass is a 1,759 foot long overpass that currently carries Malcom X Blvd (formerly Oakland Ave.) over the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Railyard near downtown Dallas, Texas. The Texas Highway Department and the United States Bureau of Public… read more
2 bridges along the Otter Chain Ponds, the first was a 66 foot steel and concrete stringer bridge and the 2nd was a 210 foot Warren through truss bridge. Both were replaced in 2013. A 1936 State Highway Commission report… read more
In 1935, the federal government dedicated $240,000 to the grading and paving of 3.6 miles of the old Pacific Coast Highway (now US 101) from Mussel Shoals in Ventura County to the Santa Barbara County line. The funds were probably… read more
This concrete bridge across Porter Slough was built under the New Deal by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). A 1941 date stamp is clearly visible (see photograph). The bridge is a 4-span concrete Tee-beam bridge. The span length is 29.9… read more
The Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway and Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Overpass is a two-lane reinforced-concrete highway bridge that conveys West Broadway Street over railroad tracks in downtown Sweetwater. The Texas Highway Department in cooperation with the… read more
In 1935, a bridge was built over Red Mountain Creek in rural Mendocino county south of Piercy along the old Redwood Highway (a piece of which appears to be renamed “Rosewarne Road”). The funds were granted by the federal government… read more
The November 1935 issue of California Highway & Public Works reported on New Deal work in the country of Panama. “PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT has approved a program of bridge construction work on the route of the Inter-American highway in Central America,… read more
Lower Rolling Dam bridge is a 29 foot concrete T-beam over the Rolling Dam Stream. It was one of 26 bridges that were badly damaged or destroyed by a 500 year flood in March 1936. A 1936 Annual Report by… read more
LOC: “Fort Worth & Denver City Railroad Underpass, Spanning State Highway 183 at Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, TX: An example of Fort Worth’s exceptional network of grade separation structures, the underpass[es serve] as a good… read more
The old Fresno-Yosemite road (today’s state highway 41) was rebuilt during the New Deal with aid from the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) to the California Division of Highways. The old road, built for wagons in the 19th century, was… read more
The Public Works Administration (PWA) and the federal Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) funded a large amount of road building around Arizona during the New Deal. One of the highway projects was an underpass for Route 66 beneath the busy… read more
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… read more
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… read more
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… read more
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… read more
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… read more
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… read more
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… read more
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… read more