Park Roads and Bridges Sites

Between 1934 and 1940, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (then called the St. Marks Migratory Bird Refuge) located about twenty-five miles away from Tallahassee FL. Overseen by the U.S. Biological Survey, the work was done by enrollees at Camp BF-1 – one of the first African American CCC camps in Florida. CCC teams constructed roads, cut fire lines, built structures, and facilitated the establishment of the refuge as it stands today. According to the Friends of St. Marks Wildlife Refuge, “lmost everything was fabricated by the CCC men. Poles that carried the power...

W.P.A. project description: 1937 Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission annual report: "Stony Brook Reservation; 8 miles of bridle roads in the reservation were improved by widening, grading and the application of gravel"

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) did major work developing the former Patrick's Point (now Sue-Meg) State Park, which had just been purchased by the new State Parks Commission in 1929. The CCC work was carried out between 1933 and 1937 by the men of Company 1903 at Camp Prairie Creek. Engbeck reports that the CCC enrollees tore out an old road and reconfigured the entry road in a more naturalized fashion; constructed a campground and day-use picnic area, with combination restrooms, washrooms and laundry rooms; rehabilitated a staff residence; and cleared a protective firebreak around the perimeter of the park  (Engbeck, p. 24). The CCC...

Improvements to Sycamore Grove Park in Los Angeles, CA were made by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) and, according to the Los Angeles Board of Park Commissioners 1932-33 Annual Report, "county welfare workmen." In addition to constructing a 15,000-foot road in the Arroyo east of the park, "five thousand trees were trimmed, with the help of the unemployed men, and the wood which was cut from the trees was split into firewood for the picnic stoves. One hundred cords of firewood was thus obtained." A 1940 date stamp on stonework in the park (located in 2015 but not in 2024) suggests further...

The Waymarking site for this park celebrates Federal Works Progress Administration's (WPA) 1939 construction/ rock work in this city park. It says: "This park is located on rolling land, which shows off beautifully the WPA structures. An Historical Society write-up shows the park being built in 1936, however, a bronze shield on the bathhouse shows 1939...." According to the Oklahoma Historic Preservation Survey, "WPA work within Wewoka Park includes a stone wall that completely encircles the park, a swimming pool and bathhouse, native stone footbridges, a stone bandstand, and a park office." It goes on to point out that Wewoka Park exemplifies...

The Works Progress Administration completed land improvements in the Tahoe National Forest in 1936. "Forest Rd. Improvement & development - Installation of Communication System. Alder Creek to Crystal Peak, Nevada & Sierra Counties. Clear & brush 51 acres of land adjacent to highways and roads for a distance of 14 miles with a Federal cost of $3440. Clear & brush 22 acres of land through forests for future road construction for a distance of 6 miles with a Federal cost of $1556. Install a communication system for a distance of 20 miles with a Federal cost of $844. All roads are...

The community of Mineral Wells hoped for the State of Texas to establish a new state park near where the Bankhead Highway crossed the Brazos River. That plan failed to materialize, so the city offered its existing 70-acre city park to the state. Known as Millings Park at the time, it was designated SP-8 for development. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 1811 arrived in Mineral Wells on June 17, 1933 and divided its time between the park and the nearby National Guard facility at Camp Wolters. The company left on January 2, 1934. The CCC built entrance portals, roads, stone stairs, a...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the modern Wildcat Canyon Road, c 1939-42.  Wildcat Canyon Road runs along the west side of Tilden Park, then crosses the park and continues over the East Bay hills down to Orinda. The WPA relief workers upgraded and paved an old dirt road, building retaining walls, adding culverts and constructing the bridge over Wildcat Creek at the junction with South Park Drive. Wildcat Canyon Road is intersected by Shasta Road at the point where it turns east,  by South Park Drive at the Botanical Gardens, and by Inspiration Point Road at the east ridge line. 

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in making improvements to Timpanogos Cave National Monument in the 1930s. They worked under the supervision of the National Park Service (NPS). A notable contribution of the WPA was to build a lovely stone arch bridge over the American Fork river in 1935.  The bridge gives access to the Superintendent's Residence, built by the WPA in 1941.  The WPA relief workers also faced both sides of the river with 6-10 foot high stone walls for a distance of about 100 feet on each side of the bridge. The stonework is...

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...

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 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...

Tucson Mountain Park, created in 1929, was opened to general recreation use in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), working with the Pima County parks agency.  The northern half of the original park was added to the Saguaro National Monument in 1961, which became a national park in 1994, and this portion of the park was renamed Saguaro National Park – Tucson Mountain District (TMD). (See also Saguaro NP (TMD) project pages) The CCC 'boys' set up Camp Pima, SP6A, in December 1933 at the northwest corner of what was is now Saguaro NP.  Working from there, they carried out extensive...

Tucson Mountain Park, created in 1929, was opened to general recreation use in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), working with the Pima County parks agency.  The northern half of the original park was added to the Saguaro National Monument in 1961, which became a national park in 1994, and this portion of the park was renamed Saguaro National Park – Tucson Mountain District (TMD). (See also Saguaro NP (TMD) project pages) The CCC 'boys' set up Camp Pima, SP6A, in December 1933 at the northwest corner of what was is now Saguaro NP.  Working from there, they carried out extensive...

The UMN Cloquet Forestry Center (CFC) is the primary research and demonstration forest for the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, currently a research and outreach center (ROC) for the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences. The Cloquet Forestry Center was called the Cloquet Forest Experiment Station when the CCC was active in providing skilled labor to the University. Projects completed at the CFC by some of the men stationed at Big Lake Camp S79 from July 1933 to June 1937 include: - the construction of five and a half miles of fire break and truck trails. - brushing and improvement of 15...

Van Damme State Park in Mendocino County CA was purchased by the state of California for its newly-established state park system in 1934, after the death of the landowner Charles Van Damme. As with so many of the original California state parks, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) moved in to develop the site for camping and recreation in the 1930s. It is not known how long the CCC enrollees worked in the park. According to Engbeck, CCC Company 572 built a new access road and a water system, expanded the campground by adding tables, stoves, and cupboards, and added a picnic...

W.P.A. Bulletin, 1937: "he Memorial Athletic Field in the rear of King's Highway School is rapidly nearing completion. Last April the field was rather ugly, idle land. Now there is a quarter-mile cinder track, circling a seeded oval, portable bleachers, a memorial plot of war veterans with flagpole, a driveway from the highway to the field, a football field, a drainage system and a fence enclosing the athletic field."

"In the 1930's the Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook a series of improvements including the construction of the loop road around the summit ." A 1937 WPA Bulletin reported: In 1934 Waitt's Mount in Maiden looked like a quarry-workers' nightmare. It was a huge, bald and jagged granite ledge whose slope was covered with twisted, stunted trees and tangled underbrush; probably the most useless piece of land in this section of the state. Today the Mount is a beautifully terraced park which commands a 15-mile panorama of metropolitan Boston. The park, built by the WPA, has landscaped slopes, shade trees, rustic...

The Washington Monument grounds – the core area of the National Mall – was substantially altered and improved, including a major reconfiguration of the streets. The work was paid for by the Public Works Administration (PWA) from a fund of over $1 million provided for an overhaul of the entire National Mall.  Labor was mostly provided by Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) relief workers. First, the Washington Monument grounds were raised and reconditioned with new topsoil, followed by reseeding of the lawns. Second, the circular roadway on the north side of Monument was eliminated and a highway in the line of...

The Wawona Covered Bridge is one of only 12 covered bridges in California and the only one in Yosemite. It was originally built by Galen Clark as a modified queen post truss without a cover in 1868, making it the oldest surviving bridge in the state. After being sold to the Washburn group of investors, it was covered with Douglas fir cladding in 1878, enclosing the Ponderosa pine structure and its iron tie rods. The adz marks on the beams are still visible. Additions were completed in 1900 when extensions at each end brought the bridge to its current length of 138 feet. The...

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 Potomac Park lies just below the National Mall and encircles the Tidal Basin.  It is the site of many national landmarks, including the Korean War Veterans Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, George Mason Memorial, and Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial. It is administered by the National Park Service. In the 1930s, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees graded, topsoiled, and seeded a one-and-one-half acre hockey field in West Potomac Park. Although nothing remains of the hockey field, that CCC work established the park as a site of sports and athletics. (HABS Survey report).   In 1936, the Works Progress Administration...

The Works Progress Administration built a bridge and walls in Whatcom Falls Park, in the vicinity of Bellingham. The bridge is in good condition and is located 100 yards from the park entrance.

New Deal crews of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted extensive work at Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge began in 1901 when part of the Comanche-Kiowa-Apache Indian Reservation was set aside as a National Forest. The area was transferred in 1935 to the Bureau of Biological Survey to become a wildlife refuge under the New Deal. The 59,020 acre refuge hosts a rare piece of the past - a remnant mixed grass prairie, an island where the natural grasslands escaped destruction because the rocks underfoot defeated the plow. It provides habitat for large native...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was present in the newly-minted Death Valley National Monument  from 1933 to 1942.  As one of their many projects, the CCC 'boys' constructed a summer headquarters and residential area for the National Park Service at Wildrose, high in the Panamint Mountains.   Summer heat made the regular headquarters and CCC camp at Cow Creek unliveable, so another CCC camp was added at Wildrose in 1935 so that the men could work year-round (at that time there were not permanent NPS staff in the monument yet). As the monument gained a permanent staff, the Superintendent made plans...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) conducted extensive development work at Grand Canyon Village, including the construction of a modest wooden bridge across Bright Angel Wash that can be found along a path between the railroad tracks and Village Loop Drive, about 300 feet down hill (but inaccessible) from Coulter Hall. CCC Walking Tour: "The CCC built two bridges across this normally dry drainage leading to the railroad tracks. The remaining bridge dates to 1937. A close look reveals that some of the timbers have been replaced recently, including adding metal beams underneath."

"The road network that would become North Attleboro's World War I Memorial Park was cut by CCC crews."

The circumferential road encompassing Wyandotte County Lake features 20 culverts, believed to be among the many Works Progress Administration (WPA) structures constructed in the park.

The circumferential road encompassing Wyandotte County Lake was surfaced by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The historic road surface is no longer visible.

The stone bridge by the park headquarters of Wyandotte County Lake Park is one of numerous Works Progress Administration (WPA) structures constructed in the park. The structure was designed to complement its natural surroundings.

The Civilian Conservation Corp’s (CCC) work at Yellowstone National Park was extensive and lasted for the entirety of the CCC program, 1933-1942.  Projects included water and sewer line installation, landscaping, tree planting, the construction of fire lookouts and weather stations, firefighting and fire prevention, trail maintenance, museum assistance, snow removal, campground development, building amphitheatres, and the “Construction of buildings ranging from many of those at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch to the residences in Lower Mammoth, sheds and utility buildings throughout the park’s developed areas” (Manns, 1981). There were six main CCC camps in Yellowstone: Mammoth Camp (YNP-1), Canyon Camp (YNP-2), Lake...