Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels Sites

A 1939 report on the WPA's progress in Southern California described the agency's extensive involvement in a major roads project helping to connect Los Angeles to the Glendale-Pasadena area by improving Figueroa St.: "The Figueroa Street Improvement, Work Project No. 4201, sponsored by the City of Los Angeles, provided for the improvement of Figueroa Street between Bishops Road and Sunset Boulevard; and Castelar St. from Figueroa Street to College Street. Both streets are units in the major highway plan of the City of Los Angeles and form an important part of an arterial highway leading from the San Fernando Valley and...

"FOR, many years the city of Los Angeles has felt the need of an additional through traffic highway to the north to relieve congestion on North Broadway. Figueroa Street, one of the main north and south arterials in the city was the logical street to be extended. A barrier formed by the Elysian Park hills and the Los Angeles River made this undertaking very expensive. However, the project has been carried forward one step at a time as funds became available. The first step was taken in 1928 when plans were ordered for the first tunnel under Elysian Park. The final...

A railway-crossing bridge carrying Fingerboard Road was built during the mid-1930s as part of a massive grade separation project along what was then the South Beach Branch of the Staten Island Railway. The line has long since been abandoned (as the line was discontinued in 1953) and the space beneath the bridge has been filled in, though there is still a drop-down from the south side of the road. The bridge had been imprinted with a 1935 date stamp. The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $1.46 million grant for the $6 million grade crossing elimination project, which included work elsewhere in Staten Island and even in...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Youngs Creek Bridge No. 1541 in Nallen WV. Excerpt from Legal Advertisement, Notice to Contractors, The Charleston (WV) Gazette, March 18, 1939, p. 11.: “Public Works Administration Projects Docket 1197-F — PWA 3372-E & PWA 3388-B. Nicholas & Fayette Counties. Nallen Bridge No. 1238-F — PWA 3238-A & D, Upshur County. 0.308 miles of the Fink Run Bridge and Approaches. Grading, Drainage, Cement Concrete Pavement and Reinforced Concrete Arch. Certified Check $1,500.00. John E. Fischer, Branch Manager, W. Va, State Employment Service, Weston, W. Va.” Possibly at Fink Run Road near Corridor G....

"FOUR grade separation projects were recently completely in Los Angeles. These projects have a 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 thirty hours per month. It also stipulated that railroad work could be done by the railroad forces." "The Firestone Boulevard Grade...

In 1941, the Works Projects Administration (WPA) built a viaduct to take First Street over the Pacific Electric interurban trolley tracks that ran along Glendale Boulevard in Los Angeles, CA, at the time.  The viaduct is still in use, though Pacific Electric disappeared long ago. "Designed to eliminate a major traffic problem on the Northwest side of Los Angeles," the caption to a WPA photo notes, "the First and Glendale viaduct, a $475,000 WPA construction project, is scheduled for completion, under city sponsorship, approximately July 15, 1941. A WPA crew of 270 workers are now engaged on the job. The viaduct...

A Bureau of Public Roads project, "Fish House Bridge was built to provide a grade separation for a small access road to a boat landing used by local fishermen in the Otter Creek area. The bridge is faced in native granite and is distinguished by its semicircular arch. -- Historic American Engineering Record"

The bridge carrying Fisher Road across Roaring Brook in Glastonbury, Connecticut was constructed by the W.P.A. in 1939.

Palm Beach's old Flagler Memorial Bridge was constructed as a federal Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA supplied a $398,750 loan and $326,455 grant for the project, whose total cost was $735,490. Construction began in Jan. 1937 and completed in Jun. 1938. In 2014 the bridge was undergoing replacement and demolition. PWA Project No. 1085-D. The project is sometimes mis-attributed to another New Deal agency, the WPA. WPB.org: "WPA funds were also utilized to construct the Flagler Memorial Bridge which opened in 1938, replacing the earlier railroad bridge from West Palm Beach to Palm Beach."

In October 1933, Camp SP5C was set up in Boulder at what is now 6th Street and Baseline Road.  Their main purpose was to build a road up the west slope of Flagstaff Mountain.  The road opened on March 29, 1935. The CCC work continued over the summit of Flagstaff Mountain to Nederland, on what is called Chapman Drive. The road was named in honor of Oscar Chapman, then Assistant Secretary of the Interior. It was the first road into Boulder Canyon and the interior. It is still a dirt road, now closed to motor vehicles. It has some spectacular rock...

The federal Work Projects Administration put many men to work starting in 1935 with a $197,000 street repair and maintenance project, along what were then dirt roads, throughout the borough of Brooklyn, New York. Roads improved included: Flatlands Ave.: E. 108th St. to Fairfield Ave. Fairfield Ave.: Flatlands Ave. to Pennsylvania Ave. Fairfield Avenue no longer exists as such: a New York City law passed in 1956 changed the name of what was then Fairfield Avenue, which extended from Louisiana Ave. east to the Brooklyn-Queens border, to Flatlands Avenue. (CUNY) Thus, the WPA project in question improved what is now the stretch of Flatlands...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was quite active in Grand County, Utah.  Four CCC camps were established in and around Moab, the county seat.  The first was the Warner Lake Camp, F-20, in 1933 under the US Forest Service, which also ran camp PE-214.  These camps worked principally on road construction and flood control on Mill Creek.   The biggest and longest lived of the CCC camps in the county was the Dalton Wells Camp, DG-32, running from 1935 to 1941.  That camp operated under the Division of Grazing of the General Land Office (predecessor of the Bureau of Land Management), working around...

Mercer ME, a small town of only 408 residents at the 1930 Census, received federal help for relief work, which included flood mitigation. Contributions from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Public Works Administration (PWA), and the Civil Works Administration (CWA) are mentioned in the 1936 Town Report. The Report lists following details about the relief work and flood control efforts carried out in 1936: Two people are listed in connection with a 1933 CWA project. Eighteen people and three companies are listed in connection with repairs after the 1936 flood. "Flood Project, WPA, Beech Hill Towns Portion $1,171.94."  

The Civil Works Administration and the Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out new road construction on Florida Road in San Lorenzo.

What is now Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, often known simply as Flushing Meadows, is a large park in Queens containing a wide variety of athletic facilities, a botanical garden, a museum and more. The site, which used to be a dumping ground, was first developed as a park in the late 1930s under the direction of Robert Moses in order to serve as the site for the 1939 World's Fair. In December 1938, the Department of Parks published a press release describing many of its ongoing projects, including this one: "In addition to the projects already listed, city funds have been secured for...

A 1934 issue of California Highway & Public Works magazine reported that 3.53 miles of road from Tunnel Station on the San Fernando Road to Olive View Hospital (formerly Sanitarium) was constructed between Dec. 1933 and Oct. 1934 northwest of San Fernando to finally complete former state highway 4 within the Los Angeles area. A reinforced concrete bridge across the Southern Pacific Railroad was constructed along with a bridge across a spur track to the Hercules Powder company plant. Federal aid for this portion of road and the bridges was $281,000.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted a project "installing surface drains on Forbes Street, from Willow Brook southerly to a point about 1500 feet south of Silver Lane. About 25 men will be employed for four months."

In 1933-34, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) carried out pavement repair and other unspecified improvements to a long segment of Fordham Road NW, from Rockwood Parkway to Massachusetts Avenue.   The road was paved with “temporary material consisting of broken-concrete base, broken stone, and slag. These large aggregates are choked with smaller material, and an application of asphaltic cement completes the operation. This construction forms a very good temporary roadway.”   The work is likely still extant, but invisible and unmarked.  

The Forest Ave. bridge, which spans a creek between Lyon Street and Lakeview Street, was completed in 1940 with funds and labor provided by the Work Projects Administration (WPA).

Description of a project undertaken by the W.P.A. in 1937: "Forest Grove Road, Waltham; a project to widen, relocate and improve this roadway, which traverses land in the Charles River Reservation, was approved and work was started in November, 1937. The bulk of the work will, however, have to await favorable weather in the spring."

Spanning what is now known as Forest Hills Blvd., the historic pedestrian bridge at Forest Hill Park in East Cleveland, Ohio was constructed with federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor. "Spanning 347 feet across a deep valley in the Dugway Brook watershed, the 48-foot-high pedestrian bridge was intended to nestle in the hilly landscape of the Heights (the westernmost foothills of the Appalachians) on Cleveland's east side. Designed by Wilbur Watson and Associates in 1939 with consulting architects F. B. Walker and A. D. Taylor, Forest Hill Park Footbridge was built in 1939-40--the work of more than 1,000 men toiling for two...

This CCC Camp in Indian Township was called the "Far East" 192nd co. camp, and was under the immediate supervision of the Maine Forest Service from June 1933 to June 1941. The Far East Camp focused on forest culture, road construction and maintenance, and extended West Street on what is presently called the Stud Mill Road. During WWII the camp was modified, in part, by the addition of a barbed wire fence, additional fences, and four guard towers. After approval from the U.S. Truman Committee this camp then became a Prisoner of War camp in 1944 and housed from 250-500 German...

Forest Park is one of the largest municipal parks in the nation, just larger than Central Park in NYC. It was the site of the 1904 Worlds Fair and the WPA projects in the park transformed it and brought it up to date, including much clearing of brush in places where it had become overgrown. In places, it truly was and still is a forest. Projects included: roads through-out the park, handball courts, tennis courts (now the Davis Tennis Center), draining lakes that had been constructed for the World's Fair and which had filled in and had debris-filled to an...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided labor for the paving of Forest Street in Amherst, Ohio starting in 1937.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) paved 34 streets in Hartford, Connecticut, including Forest Street, as part of a $2.5 million, two-year paving project begun in 1937. The federal government contributed $1 million.

"Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park is located seven miles (11 km) south of Mandan, North Dakota. The park is home to On-A-Slant Indian Village, the blockhouses and the Custer house. President Theodore Roosevelt signed the deed to the land to the state in 1907 as Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park... In 1934, the Civilian Conservation Corps built a visitor center, shelters, and roads. They also reconstructed military blockhouses and placed cornerstones to mark where fort buildings once stood, as well as replicating Mandan earthen lodges. Additional reproductions have since been built on the site creating a replica Mandan village, called "On-a-Slant Village."...

The federal Works Progress Administration worked to develop Fort Bliss. El Paso Herald-Post: "Another $50,000 in WPA funds, ... will be used to hire labor to paint and repair Ft. Bliss buildings, to build roads, and other improvements on the reservation."

The Civil Works Administration (CWA), Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) performed structural renovation and historic restoration work at this site. Casper Star-Tribune, 1934: "Dedication of the new traps today at the Izaak Walton league park near the old site of Fort Caspar will afford the Casper public opportunity to view extensive Improvement work carried on there for several months as a CWA project. Progress made in construction of a spacious, rustic lodge of logs, and a fence of the same material, and the planting of hundreds of trees and shrubs will be open to inspection. When...

Dating from WWI, Fort Dix provided training for soldiers enlisted in the U.S. Army. According to a Works Progress Administration (WPA) Information Division document, the WPA engaged in “Campwide improvement to grounds, including grading, checking of soil erosion, improvements to drainage to eliminate mud, and clearing fire trails and brush; construction of target pits and machine gun range, landing field, one mile of railroad. Construction or repair of garage, motor repair shop, schools, tent floors, incinerator, sawmill, woodshop, quarters, storage buildings, mess hall, cold storage plant, hospital, airport buildings, disposal plant, improvements of water supply system, clearing of ditches...

According to Work: A Journal of Progress, Works Progress Administration (WPA) crews did roadway excavation and other work on Fort Drive in Fort Reno Park, in front of the Alice Deal School, as well as landscaping the slopes of nearby Reno Road  in 1936.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) carried out pavement repair and other, unspecified improvements to a segment of Fort Drive NW, near Nebraska Avenue, in 1935-36. The work was part of the $949,496 WPA allotment for DC roadwork for fiscal year 1936.   The work is likely still extant, but invisible beneath subsequent repairs and paving.    

The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) developed conducted improvement work at what was then Fort H. G. Wright. The following projects were sponsored by the Commanding Officer, Fort H. G. Wright, U.S. Army. Description: Improve buildings, facilities, and grounds Official Project Number: 165‐2‐15‐99 Total project cost: $31,871.00 Description: Improve roads, buildings, and facilities Official Project Number: 265‐2‐15‐23 Total project cost: $72,732.00

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted substantial development work at the former Fort Hancock. Numerous projects undertaken by the New Deal agency, totaling more than two million dollars , included utility and infrastructure overhauls, building new military facilities, reconstructing docks, erecting a training camp, and even building tennis courts.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted development efforts at Fort Leavenworth as part of multiple projects totaling more than $1 million. Projects included: Construct and improve buildings, structures, and facilities. Cost: $150,000. Sponsor: War Department ‐Q.M.C. WPA Project No. 113‐3‐82‐7 Construct and rehabilitate barracks and quarters and utilities. Cost: $355,045. Sponsor: War Department ‐Q.M.C. WPA Project No. 13‐3‐82‐7 Improve buildings and grounds. Cost: $424,649. Sponsor: War Department. WPA Project No. 165‐2‐82‐23 Improve roads and streets. Sponsor: Commanding Officer, Fort Leavenworth, U.S. Army. WPA Project No. 365‐82‐1‐1 Make general improvements to buildings, utilities, walks, and grounds. Cost: $45,230. Sponsor: Commanding...

Take up and relay approximately 800 lineal feet of railroad track serving Fort Mason, including new ties and ballast.--Mooser, p. 95.

This gate is an amazing engineering feet. It lays at approximately 250 feet long and is in very nice shape. This gate, once completed, was used as the post's main gate prior to the cantonment area moving to North of Highway 21 in 1942. Work on this gate started in 1940 and most likely was completed in 1941. The road, which is County Highway A has existed since the base opened in 1909. There is a historical sign outlining the WPA's contributions to then Camp McCoy.

Per a historical account of Fort McCoy, written as a result of the base's 100th anniversary, it was mentioned that the WPA worked on post during the construction of Highway 21 near the Fort. This construction resulted in many buildings and two stone gates. Per the 2009 report, the two stone gates were the only structures that remained. This stone gate is located on Ginger Road just off of Highway 21 going into South Post. This gate is still standing but it has degraded with time. Ginger Road leads to the current base housing unit for permanent Soldiers and families.

The Fort is located on the West side of the island. Build rubble masonry walls, install irrigation system, excavation, weeding, seeding, and trimming slopes, transplanting seedlings.--Mooser, p. 94.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted millions of dollars (not even adjusted for inflation) of improvement and development work at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey. No aspects of the installation were left untouched: improvement and construction work involved developing "an auxiliary flying field," roads, sidewalks, electrical, heading, plumbing and sewer systems, and erosion control. All manners of facilities were built, refurbished, improved, or expanded. A captioned image in "The Dawn," a WPA publication, states that conducted "extensive repair work" at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey ca. 1936. Here is one typical project description, Official Project #765‐22‐2‐14: Improve buildings, including general overhauling of plumbing, heating, and...

The WPA worked to improve the facilities and infrastructure at Fort Mott, southwest of Pennsville, New Jersey. The site is now a state park. These WPA projects were sponsored by the Commanding Officer, Fort DuPont, U.S. Army: "Improve cemetery road and dock road, including placing curbs, grading and paving roadway" Official Project Number: 765‐22‐1‐5 Total project cost: $12,198.00 "Improve buildings, grounds, and facilities" Official Project Number: 165‐2‐22‐215 Total project cost: $137,676.00 "Rehabilitate and improve buildings, facilities, and grounds" Official Project Number: 65‐2‐22‐365 Total project cost: $17,435.00