Flood and Erosion Control Sites

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...

"Stone retaining walls that line streets and highways throughout the region -- along Route 611 in Easton, Spruce Street in Tamaqua and Carlton Avenue in Bethlehem -- were WPA projects." The precise location of these walls along Route 611 in Easton is presently unclear to Living New Deal.

From January to April 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) oversaw the excavation of Rubio Wash in Altadena, CA. "Under this project, accumulated debris was excavated from debris basin and hauled with wheelbarrows to fill an adjoining area. It is estimated that 6,000 cubic yards were removed."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) carried out flood control works on the Sacramento River across twenty counties in Northern California, beginning in 1939. The project was sponsored by the State of California Department of Public Works and the work was performed by WPA relief workers. The estimated labor for the project was 480,592 federal man-hours. The scope of the project was broad, including cleaning levees and channels of brush, repairing and improving levees, replacing drainage systems and reconstructing appurtenant structures like bridges, weirs and levee roads. The exact sites where this work was done cannot be determined without further research -- if ever.  

The city of Tucson is flanked by two halves of the Saguaro National Park, which protects extensive areas of Sonoran Desert landscapes and the biodiverse communities of the Tucson Mountains and Rincon Mountains – two of the many "sky islands" of southern Arizona. The eastern district of Saguaro National Park was set aside as Saguaro National Monument by President Herbert Hoover in early 1933; today, it is known as the Saguaro NP - Rincon Mountain District (RMD).  The western district of the park was originally part of the Tucson Mountain Park, a county park created in 1929; the northern section of...

“This provides for the control of floods at the town of Hyder by the reconstruction of 681 feet of existing dike, construction of 3,653 feet of new dike, and clearing of the flood plain west of the present channel.” $34,231.20 allotted by PWA

A WPA press release from Dec. 1937 announced that "45 unemployed will be put to work on a flood control project in the Salzer Creek Valley, Lewis County, under a $10,965 allotment." The aim of the project was to improve the Lewis County Fairgrounds, now known as the Southwest Wash Fair.

In 1938, the Works Progress Administration employed workers on the San Gabriel River Levee. Project No. 9686 employed on average 328 men for 4 months. Project No. 9998 employed 458 men on average for 5 months. From a WPA report:   "Work Project No. 9686 and 9998, sponsored by the Los Angeles County Flood Control District, provides for the enlarging and reconstruction of the earth levees along both banks of the San Gabriel River east of the City of Azusa, and extending downstream from the mouth of the San Gabriel Canyon, a distance of about 2 1/4 miles.   "San Gabriel Canyon has...

WPA Project #1 B13 905 A concrete lined storm drain that runs from through San Marino to the Alhambra Wash. The images shown here run from North to South along the wash in the order displayed. To see a map showing each of the photos click here. Project dates: Feb. 12, 1933 to Mar. 15, 1933. (Alternative spelling: San Pasqual)

The Works Progress Administration carried out flood control/riprapping work on the bed of the San Creek in Ada County.

"...the vast New Deal flood-control project (1938-42) that dammed the Tallahatchie River and created Sardis Lake, an artificial reservoir that covered hundreds of square miles in western Lafayette and eastern Panola counties. The dam itself was a giant, mile-long mound of earth, one of the world's largest, with sculpturally modernist steel and concrete elements framing the spillway and the water level control towers" (Hines, 1996, p. 112). Later, the Sardis State Park was added. The site was renamed the John W. Kyle State Park and Dam, though the name Sardis Lake is still used as well.

"Scenic State Park CCC/Rustic Style historic resources are located in two historic districts that include a public use area and service yard. The park contains ten contributing buildings and structures built among stands of virgin Norway and white pine on the shores of Coon and Sandwick Lakes. Architects for the park buildings were from the National Park Service... Scenic State Park was the first in the state to provide a complete range of recreational facilities developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The park’s Rustic Style buildings represent a remarkable collection of log structures that received considerable acclaim from the National Park...

The former Colfax Grammar School (now Sierra Vista Community Center) and environs were developed by the Work Projects Administration (WPA) in 1940. Both the surrounding sidewalks and retaining walls bear multiple "WPA 1940" imprint stamps. One instance is shield-shaped. Locations and coordinates of sidewalk imprint stamps (on the north side of School Street): (S1) Eastern end of retaining wall: 39.102562, -120.952843 (S2) School Street building entrance: 39.102710, -120.953671 Interestingly, WPA stamp "S2", which faces south, away from the former school entrance, is adjacent to a second, fainter, impression. That stamp, which faces east, appears almost as though it had been created in error, and then corrected...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed the seawall between the beach and Front Street in Avila Beach CA in 1937. That wall was replaced in 2000 and the corner piece with the WPA stamp on it placed in the park downtown.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) contributed funding for the construction of a sea wall in Lahaina, Maui, during the 1930s. The PWA gave a grant of $8,184 and the cost of the completed project was $18,186. The project was begun and completed in 1938. The exact location of this sea wall is unclear; several parts of Lahaina possess a sea wall, including along Front Street. However, one tourism site writes: "The Lahaina Harbor is in front of the old courthouse, which is a visitors center with knowledgeable and free walking maps. For the Lahaina Seawall—a must-do side-trip—walk over to the prominent Lahaina...

W.P.A. Bulletin, 1937: "Another outstanding project in Winthrop is the sea wall being built from the Winthrop Yacht Club to the narrow, sea-girt road which leads to Point Shirley. Here pounding waves had undermined the old-fashioned wall. WPA has built a sloping sea wall which can better break the chop of the waves in front of Shirley street, protecting the street from erosion and the site of the first house built by Governor Winthrop. The Dean Winthrop House, built in 1639 and to which the governor's son. Dean Winthrop, took his bride, is still standing."

The PWA was involved in construction of a seawall along the Atlantic coast of New Hampshire, in particular, the Hampton Beach resort area. Up to the advent of the New Deal, the condition of the very popular Hampton Beach area was in rather dilapidated condition due to storms, tides, river currents, erosion, and piecemeal work by the local authorities which resulted in a loss of property of half a million dollars due to its nature as a sand barrier island. In 1932 under the Hampton Beach Development Commission & engineer and planner Warren Manning, and the transfer of control from local...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built a seawall along the Pacific Coast Highway north of Ventura. The original was a rubble wall type of construction, but it has recently been replaced by a concrete wall.  Harland George Voight, a farmer from Nebraska, migrated to California after locusts destroyed his crop during the Great Depression. Upon finding no private work he joined the CCC and was stationed in Ventura County. One of the projects he helped to build was the seawall.      

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a "sea wall and boathouse" by the site of the former Naval Militia armory in Whitestone, New York. The boathouse, which still stands, is likely abandoned.

In 1940, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed sewers at 17th, 18th, and Randolph streets in the district's northeast quadrant. This work was part of a massive New Deal era program for Washington of sewer construction, separation of sanitary and storm sewers, and sewage treatment at the new Blue Plains facility in order to clean up the badly polluted Anacostia and Potomac Rivers.

According to the Washington Post, $220,500 was allotted by the Public Works Administration (PWA) for an outfall sewer extension in 1933.   According to DC Water, there are 53 sewer outfalls in the District, so the location of the work cannot be known based on this source alone. This work was part of a massive New Deal era program to upgrade the sewers of Washington DC, separate sanitary and storm sewer systems, and install sewage treatment at Blue Plains.   The outfalls referred to here would today be storm sewers not sanitary sewers.

Shasta Dam is the keystone of the Central Valley Project, a complex of several dams, reservoirs and canals across Northern California.  It is a high-arch concrete dam over 600 feet high and almost 3,500 feet wide at the top, situated in the former Iron Canyon. At the time it was built, it was the second largest dam in the world, after Grand Coulee on the Columbia River (another New Deal project), and it is still the 8th highest in the United States.  It impounds the largest reservoir in California, with a capacity of 4.5 million acre-feet. Shasta Dam had been originally conceived...

Emergency relief crews, including WPA and CCC workers, undertook cleanup and dredging in Wallace and nearby towns after persistent flooding of the Coeur d'Alene River in 1933 and 1934. From the University of Idaho archives, describing the collection on file: "The floods of 1933 were by far the worst. Three days of torrential rains in early June sent the Coeur d'Alene River and its tributaries over their banks. Then on December 21 a sudden thaw accompanied by heavy rains caused landslides and flooding. Coeur d'Alene Lake reached an all time high level of 2139.5 feet above sea level--two feet higher than...

This concrete dam on Little Santa Anita Creek, in the city of Sierra Madre, California, is owned by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. Although the original dam was completed in 1928, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) did work to channelize the creek and construct bridges below the dam. A large concrete dam for flood control in the vicinity of Sierra Madre was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), circa 1935.

Big Timber’s Pioneer newspaper reported that the "riprapping Silver Bow creek near Meaderville" was one of many several dozen projects in the state of Montana whose funding was approved by the WPA during July 1938. Riprapping refers to the formation of breakwaters or other structures using loose stones. It is possible that the project was undertaken to mitigate erosion in the area. A sum of $31,307 was allocated to the project. The precise location of this project, given the description provided in the newspaper, is difficult to discern. Meaderville (whose approximate coordinates are given as the site for this project), a former...

In 1940, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed sewers at 16th and Oates streets in the district's northeast quadrant. This work was part of a massive New Deal era program for Washington of sewer construction, separation of sanitary and storm sewers, and sewage treatment at the new Blue Plains facility in order to clean up the badly polluted Anacostia and Potomac Rivers.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed flood control work on Slab Fork Creek in Mullens. The work performed by WPA crews included building stone walls, widening, straightening, and deepening the channel, and clearing debris. The flood control sought to prevent property damage caused by the overflowing of the creek.

"In Snohomish County, farm land conditions will be improved by a drainage system affecting seven sections of land between the cities of Snohomish and Monroe. Cooperating with the State of Washington, sponsoring the project, WPA will invest $14,989, according to an announcement from WPA Administrator Don G. Abel. Clearing, deepening and Widening existing ditches and constructing a new ditch will tend to remove the danger of floods and simultaneously help prevent erosion. Although this work is sponsored by the state, no additional taxes or assessments will be levied. Similarly private property rights will not be violated as easements have been obtained...

"WPA’s legacy is visible today in those and many other ways. Among projects in Wilkes-Barre were ... walls along Laurel Run, Mill and Solomon creeks."

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) workers constructed a sea wall in South Boston, Massachusetts. From a W.P.A. Bulletin: Designed to hold back destructive water at flood tides, to keep drifting sand from the adjoining roadway and non-bathers from encroaching on the beach area a WPA Sea Wall Project, Columbus Park, South Boston, extends for more than half a mile along the beach. The status of this structure is unknown to Living New Deal.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked on a land reclamation and shore beautification project on the south shore of Perth Amboy, New Jersey. "The Dawn," a WPA publication, Oct. 1936: "Road construction and other operations by Works Progress Administration men of District 4 have transformed a mile and a half of Perth Amboy's South Shore so that the area's reclamation and development soon will be accomplished facts. The waterfront project from Second Street to Lewis Street, along Raritan River and Raritan Bay, has engaged the services of an average of 200 men for a year. The Federal Government allotted 85 per cent of...

From the Wisconsin Historical Society entry on the beach house: Southport Beach House, like most of Kenosha's park structures, was the product of Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Southport Beach House, begun in 1936, used recycled materials to cut costs. This way, rather than paying for new materials, the city paid workers to tear down condemned buildings as well as build new ones. The beach house uses luxurious slate, stone and marble materials salvaged from the old Kenosha post office, which would have been otherwise unaffordable. The beach house is an eclectic mix of popular architectural styles. The east side combines Tudor...

NOTE: none of the sources cited actually mentions the WPA... From the 1840s-1870s, the city of Springfield constructed and utilized an aqueduct system to bring in water from sources to the west of the city. Multiple collection sites, including Ludlow Reservoir, Borden Brook Reservoir, and Cobble Mountain Reservoir, were built prior to 1931 to hydrate the city. The West Parrish Filters project was constructed from 1939-1940 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from an expense of $500,000. The project was designed to improve water supply, water quality, and flood control system for local communities and surrounding areas. The project provided work for...

"Stone retaining walls that line streets and highways throughout the region -- along Route 611 in Easton, Spruce Street in Tamaqua and Carlton Avenue in Bethlehem -- were WPA projects."

W.P.A. project information: “Make improvements in and along St. Regis River for flood control purposes” Official Project Number: 165‐2‐91‐91 Total project cost: $24,724.00 Sponsor: District Engineer, Corps of Engineers, War Department

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) workers constructed a sizable sea wall in Gloucester, Massachusetts. From a W.P.A. Bulletin: More than 3500 tons of stone set in cement were required in the construction of this 1100 foot WPA sea wall at Stage Fort Park, Cressey Beach, Gloucester. The wall preserves teh beach area by preventing water and driven sand from flooding the park property.

A sizable retaining wall and pedestrian staircase were constructed by the W.P.A. on the north side of Union Street, between S. 10th St. and S. Poplar St.. An inscription on the Union Street retaining wall west of the staircase entrance declares: "Constructed by the Works Progress Administration and the City of Allentown, 1937."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed flood control work on Stonecoal Creek. The work performed by WPA crews included widening, straightening, and deepening the channel, and clearing debris. The flood control sought to prevent property damage caused by the overflowing of the creek.

According to USGS this station has been discontinued, perhaps as early as 1941.

The Works Progress Administration completed improvements for several streets in Grantsville, Calhoun County. The work consisted of building retaining walls, curbs, and sidewalks.