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 improving Balboa Avenue: "The Balboa Avenue Improvement, Work Project No. 645, was sponsored by the City of Los Angeles to provide a high speed traffic artery between San Fernando Road and Ventura Boulevard through San Fernando Valley. When completed, this street which is primarily a farm-to-market road, will serve, indirectly, a potentially enormous agricultural area by connecting these two major State Highways. The total length of this 54' roadway will be 9.8 miles, which will require 335,000 cubic yards of excavation, nearly...

Bridge built in Mayagüez by the Puerto Rican Emergency Relief Administration.

WPA Bulletin, 1937: "Mayor George E. McLean of Beverly recently announced the completion of one of the longest paving projects in WPA on Balch street from Cabot to McKay streets, a distance of a bout 3000 feet."

With funding from the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), and, later, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the City of New Haven CT was able to construct a parkway from West Rock Park to a location six miles away known as Bethany Gap. According to the New Haven Museum, funds appropriated for the construction of the parkway helped “put unemployed persons to work during a period of record unemployment in the nation and state.” Baldwin Drive continues to serve residents today. 

In 1937 the Seattle City Council passed an ordinance authorizing work to begin on reconstructing the bridge. The job took a year and a half and replaced the timber approaches with approaches of concrete and steel that featured ornamental lighting. The cost was $800,000, funded 45 percent by the federal Depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the remainder by Seattle's share of the state gasoline tax. The work closed the roadway for the year and a half of construction. For the duration, people crossing the ship canal were obliged to drive over the Fremont Bridge or the Aurora Bridge.

The US Army Corps of Engineers played an instrumental role in developing this important Los Angeles urban waterway.  Much of the creek was "channelized", i.e.,  lined with concrete, as part of a massive flood-control project undertaken by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Los Angeles County Flood Control District following the great Los Angeles flood of 1938. Ballona Creek is short river in southwestern Los Angeles County that drains an area exending from the Santa Monica Mountains on the north, the Harbor Freeway (I-110) on the east, and the Baldwin Hills on the south. It flows through Culver City and...

The federal government in the form of the US Army Corps of Engineers played an instrumental role in developing the Ballona Creek waterway in Los Angeles, which helps drain the Los Angeles basin from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The section from the Pacific Ocean to Vista del Mar was started in 1938 and completed in 1939. The Vista del Mar to La Salle Ave section was started in 1935 and completed in 1936. The La Salle Ave. to Washington Blvd. section was started 1938 and completed 1939. The Washington Blvd. to Redondo Blvd. section was started in...

The federal government in the form of the US Army Corps of Engineers played an instrumental role in developing the Ballona Creek waterway in Los Angeles, which helps drain the Los Angeles basin from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The section from the Pacific Ocean to Vista del Mar was started in 1938 and completed in 1939. The Vista del Mar to La Salle Ave section was started in 1935 and completed in 1936. The La Salle Ave. to Washington Blvd. section was started 1938 and completed 1939. The Washington Blvd. to Redondo Blvd. section was started in...

The federal government in the form of the US Army Corps of Engineers played an instrumental role in developing the Ballona Creek waterway in Los Angeles, which helps drain the Los Angeles basin from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The section from the Pacific Ocean to Vista del Mar was started in 1938 and completed in 1939. The Vista del Mar to La Salle Ave section was started in 1935 and completed in 1936. The La Salle Ave. to Washington Blvd. section was started 1938 and completed 1939. The Washington Blvd. to Redondo Blvd. section was started in...

The federal government in the form of the US Army Corps of Engineers played an instrumental role in developing the Ballona Creek waterway in Los Angeles, which helps drain the Los Angeles basin from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The section from the Pacific Ocean to Vista del Mar was started in 1938 and completed in 1939. The Vista del Mar to La Salle Ave section was started in 1935 and completed in 1936. The La Salle Ave. to Washington Blvd. section was started 1938 and completed 1939. The Washington Blvd. to Redondo Blvd. section was started in...

The federal government in the form of the US Army Corps of Engineers played an instrumental role in developing the Ballona Creek waterway in Los Angeles, which helps drain the Los Angeles basin from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The section from the Pacific Ocean to Vista del Mar was started in 1938 and completed in 1939. The Vista del Mar to La Salle Ave section was started in 1935 and completed in 1936. The La Salle Ave. to Washington Blvd. section was started 1938 and completed 1939. The Washington Blvd. to Redondo Blvd. section was started in...

The federal government in the form of the US Army Corps of Engineers played an instrumental role in developing the Ballona Creek waterway in Los Angeles, which helps drain the Los Angeles basin from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The section from the Pacific Ocean to Vista del Mar was started in 1938 and completed in 1939. The Vista del Mar to La Salle Ave section was started in 1935 and completed in 1936. The La Salle Ave. to Washington Blvd. section was started 1938 and completed 1939. The Washington Blvd. to Redondo Blvd. section was started in...

The federal government in the form of the US Army Corps of Engineers played an instrumental role in developing the Ballona Creek waterway in Los Angeles, which helps drain the Los Angeles basin from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The section from the Pacific Ocean to Vista del Mar was started in 1938 and completed in 1939. The Vista del Mar to La Salle Ave section was started in 1935 and completed in 1936. The La Salle Ave. to Washington Blvd. section was started 1938 and completed 1939. The Washington Blvd. to Redondo Blvd. section was started in...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) resurfaced Atlantic City's Baltic Avenue in 1936. "One of the tracks will be removed from that thoroughfare, new gutters will be laid and the street resurfaced with asphalt, the same as Atlantic avenue." "Twelve city blocks of this avenue had been resurfaced by 109 unskilled and 10 skilled WPA workmen who also installed a concrete gutter on the street." The WPA paving job quickly proved its worth. According to City Commissioner Major William F. Casey after the 1936 Cape Hatteras hurricane, "Baltic Avenue was a pleasure to see after the storm because of the new paving....

 Created in 1927 as a commercial airport named Godfrey Field. In 1940 the Maine State Defense Commission considered 6 airports priority for use as military bases, Bangor being a key one. A 1940 Maine State Legislature report records that construction of the base was done by the W.P.A. and improved by FERA with  a 1400 x 100 gravel runway and a 1500 x 100 Gravel runway. "he airfield was taken over by the U.S. Army just before World War II and renamed Godfrey Army Airfield and later Dow Army Airfield. It became Dow Air Force Base in 1947, when the new U.S....

Constructed in 1941, with WPA labor, the Banita Creek Bridge crosses the waterway of the same name with three spans of reinforced concrete girder. The 100’-long bridge has a 24’-wide roadway with cantilevered sidewalks on both sides. The hand railing is composed of open concrete balustrade divided into sections by stepped Art Deco-like posts. The approach railing at the end of bridge angles out, following the skew of the wingwalls below. The WPA erected the bridge as part of a larger project that widened and improved the channels of Bonita and Lanana creeks. As part of the project, work-relief crews built sidewalks...

Mobile, Alabama's Bankhead Tunnel carries Government Street under the Mobile River. "Named for John Hollis Bankhead, construction of the Bankhead Tunnel began in 1938. Financed by the Public Works Administration, the tubes for the tunnel were made by workers at the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company with construction overseen by the firm of Wilberding and Palmer. The tunnel travels more than 3,000 feet under the Mobile River and is still heavily used."

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

The Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out new road construction on Barcelona Road in Rio Grande.

"Work Project No. 9373, sponsored by the City of Los Angeles is a heavy travelled major traffic artery and extends northerly from Ventura Boulevard to communities in the northern section of of the San Fernando Valley. "Prior to its improvement by the W.P.A., this street was a narrow winding road with sharp curves and poorly established grades making it totally unfit to carry the heavy traffic to which it was being subjected. "To eliminate the above conditions the W.P.A. approved, and subsequently completed a project which provided modern street improvements between Ventura Boulevard and the City of Los Angeles northerly boundary,...

Delaware utilized substantial federal resources in developing and improving its road network during the Great Depression. Among the dozens of projects undertaken by the federal Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) during 1934 was construction at the Barkers Landing Bridge, several miles southeast of Dover. Living New Deal believes the bridge to have been replaced. An average of 1,410 were put to work each week during 1934 as a result of the CWA's road, sidewalk, bridge, and other related infrastructure efforts in Delaware.  

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved a segment of Barnaby Street NW, from Utah Avenue to Arcadia Place. This was a WPA curb and gutter project: “This project was 1,200 feet long and serves the recent developments in this vicinity.”

The Civil Works Administration and the Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out new road construction on Barrancas Road in Barranquitas.

Montpelier's 40th Annual Report details many roadwork projects undertaken in 1934 with Vermont Emergency Relief Administration (VERA) funds, including: "Barre Road, widening at Jerue turn". Efforts were continued in subsequent years by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). 1939 Montpelier annual report: "State Aid Construction has been carried on somewhat in connection with Federal Participation in the form of W.P.A. labor. Barre Street has been macadamized from Hubbard St., to Pioneer St., a distance of 4,965 ft., and an area of 14,500 sq. yds. ... Pioneer Street has been concreted and graded, a distance of 300 ft., and an area of 854 sq....

The Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out repair and maintenance work in Barrio Flamenco in Culebra.

The Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out repair and maintenance work in Barrio Guatemala in San Sebastian.

The Civil Works Administration and the Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out repair and maintenance work on Barrio Higuillales Road in Naranjito.

The Civil Works Administration and the Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out new road construction on Barrio Nuevo Road in Bayamón.

The Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out repair and maintenance work in Barrio Pozos in Ciales.

The Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out repair and maintenance work in Barrio Tetuan in Utuado.

The Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out new road construction from Barrio to Albonito Road in Hatillo.

A Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was established west of the Baker-Barry tunnel on the Marin Headlands, probably in 1934. Enrollees from this camp built the Baker-Barry Tunnel, a single-lane passage under the Marin Headlands, in 1935. The CCC camp closed in 1936, but the tunnel remains on Bunker Road in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.  It was extensively renovated by the National Park Service in 2016-17.    

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

Cape Cod's Bass River Bridge was constructed as a Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) project. Completed in 1935, the bridge carries Route 28 (a.k.a. Main Street) from South Yarmouth to West Dennis. P.W.A. Project No. 5624.

Hailed as the first major Works Progress Administration (WPA) project completed in Texas, what was then a bridge spanning the Colorado River along the primary link connecting Bastrop and Elgin, located on a farm-to-market road, opened in January 1936. Given as Texas State Route 95—the most direct connection between the cities today—was not yet constructed at the time, Living New Deal believes this to be the former bridge spanning the Colorado River along Farm-to-Market Road 969 (since replaced).

The 141-foot Batesville Creek Bridge, which carries N. Broadview Street across Batesville Creek, south of Damascus, Arkansas, was constructed in 1940. The bridge plate (plaque) states that this project was funded by the Public Roads Administration of the Federal Works Agency.

A new entrance bridge to Bath V.A. Medical Center over the Conhocton (or Cohocton) Rover was built in 1939, replacing an older one which had been posted as unsafe five years earlier. A lengthy detour was required to leave or enter the grounds. This 1939 bridge is still in use as of 2023. However, the New Deal agency responsible for the construction is currently unknown to Living New Deal.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to improve many roads in San Francisco, including the 1.8-mile stretch of Bay Street between Fillmore St. and The Embarcadero.

The Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out new road construction on Bayamon River Road in Toa Baja.

The Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out repair and maintenance work on Bayamon Road in Cidra.