Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels Sites

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Veterans Boulevard approach road and tunnel to the Golden Gate Bridge (not itself a New Deal project) in 1939-40.  The roadway runs north-south across the Presidio of San Francisco, connecting Park Presidio Boulevard coming north from Golden Gate Park to Presidio Boulevard, running east-west, and on to the southern entrance to the Golden Gate Bridge.  There is an 800-foot tunnel in the mid-section of the approach road. Apparently, the original name of the roadway was Funston Avenue approach, which was changed sometime after World War II.  

Federal funds helped to grade and pave 1 mile of Golden State Boulevard in between Selma and Fowler and the construction of a small bridge over the Switch canal.

In 1933-34, the Public Works Administration (PWA) paid for pavement repair and other unspecified improvements to a long segment of Good Hope Road SE, from Nichols Avenue (now Martin Luther King, Jr Avenue) to Naylor Road.  The labor was very likely provided by Civil Works Administration (CWA) or other relief agency workers.   This roadwork is probably not discernible today, having been paved over several times.           

The Civil Works Administration built the Goose Shoals Bridge in the vicinity of Florence, Lauderdale County. The bridge structure is made of concrete and stone and is 390 ft. long.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a bridge across Gordon Creek outside Price, Utah. The exact location is unknown to Living New Deal, though we do believe the structure has since been replaced.

The Works Progress Administration completed road improvements on Gormon Avenue. The work included “Stone-basing, surfacing and building curbs.”  

The WPA worked on Gough St. between Market and California.

Montpelier's 40th Annual Report details many roadwork projects undertaken in 1934 with Vermont Emergency Relief Administration (VERA) funds, including: "Gould Hill Road entire length, grading and graveling". Efforts were continued in subsequent years by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

Big Timber Pioneer reported in late 1935 that among eight WPA projects then being undertaken in Musselshell County were (unidentified) improvements to Goulding Creek Road.

The bridge carrying Arkansas 377 over a tributary of Gourd Creek, 14 miles by road west of Marshall, Arkansas, was constructed by the Work Projects Administration (W.P.A.) in 1940.

A grade crossing construction project in Le Roy, New York was undertaken with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a $47,299 grant toward the $219,469 eventual total cost of the project. Work occurred between April and November 1935. The exact location of this project is unknown to Living New Deal, though it's likely that the grade separation project in question is what carries the railroad above West Main Street at the edge of town. More information is needed. (PWA Docket No. NY 5648)

The Bureau of Public Roads provided funds for a grade separation project, carrying "Jimmy Lee Crossing" over the railroad in Estell Manor, N.J. It is possible that is now Tuckahoe Rd. The project was undertaken as part of a larger grade crossing elimination initiative during that era. New Jersey Board of Public Utility Commissioners: "A "Works Program-State Highway Department'' project on which the Board initiated proceedings and on February 4, 1936, issued an order to eliminate the grade crossing. Contract for construction was let by the State Highway Department on January 11, 1937, and construction was completed in September, 1937."

The Bureau of Public Roads provided funds for the separation of "Creamery Road" (now Rte. 46) and the railroad in Great Meadows, New Jersey. The project was undertaken as part of a larger grade crossing elimination initiative during that era. New Jersey Board of Public Utility Commissioners: "A "Works Program-State Highway Department" project on which the Board initiated proceedings and on October 8, 1935, issued an order to eliminate the grade crossing Contract for construction was let by the State Highway Department in September, 1936, and construction was completed in January, 1937. Funds from the Bureau of Public Roads were allotted to meet the entire...

A grade separation project was undertaken in Millvale, in 1938-9, as part of a New Deal project sponsored by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA provided a $76,050 grant for the project, whose total cost was $163,052. PWA Docket No. PA 2023. The project likely occurred in the vicinity of William Penn Highway / E Ohio Street / Grant Avenue.

The Bureau of Public Roads provided funds for a grade separation project involving "Franklin Ave." and the railroad in Pennington, N.J. However, since no crossing at this location is extant, it is possible that they mean the Broemel Pl. underpass. The project was undertaken as part of a larger grade crossing elimination initiative during that era. New Jersey Board of Public Utility Commissioners: "A "Works Program-State Highway Department" project on which the Board initiated proceedings and on October 2, 1935, issued an order to eliminate the grade crossing. Construction started in October, 1936, and the project was completed in November, 1937. Funds from...

A set of grade-separation underpasses was constructed in 1939 with the assistance of the United States Bureau of Public Roads. Two underpasses allow railroad traffic to span Denrock Ave.; one underpass brings Railroad St. (U.S. 87) under rail traffic. Multiple plaques on site read: C.R.I.&G. AND F.W. & D.C. RY. UNDERPASS Built in 1939 by the Texas Highway Department --- United States Bureau of Public Roads --- State Highway Commission Brady Gentry - Chairman Harry Hines - Member Robert Lee Bobbitt - Member   Julian Montgomery Highway Engineer   R. R. Tway Contractor

The W.P.A. extended Granby Road in conjunction with the development of the Westover military reservation. W.P.A. project information: "Granby Rd. to Ind. Gate ‐Westover Field" Official Project Number: 65‐1‐14‐3047 Total project cost: $15,587.00 Sponsor: U.S. Navy Department

In 1935, one mile of Glassell Street in Santa Ana, California, was graded and paved between Seventeenth Street and Fairhaven Avenue using a federal grant of $50,000. The name of this section of the road is now called North Grand Avenue. The funds surely came through the Bureau of Public Roads to the California State Highway Department, which passed it on to the City of Santa Ana.  (This needs to be confirmed). This would have been part of a larger annual grant to the state for road building. Almost certainly this stretch of road has been repaved and improved since the New...

An article in the April 29, 1942 edition of The New York Times reported that WPA work on the Grand Concourse had begun. The work involved widening the Grand Concourse between 153rd and 161st streets by 6 feet, as well as installing a four-foot-wide center mall.

The bridge was one of many PWA and WPA projects built in Washington state: "The Bridge was built from 1934-1935 and at the height of its construction it gave the more than 7000 workers on the Grand Coulee Dam passage to their homes in Mason City. The Bridge itself is just a bit north of the dam that shares its name. The bridge is part of the roadway Washington 155. Now it is mainly for everyday traffic but when it was originally built it was for the sole purpose of aiding in the help in the construction of the Grand Coulee...

"9.979 miles of grading, etc. Grand Loop Highway, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, by Bureau of Public Roads, Denver to James Crick, Spokane WA, $324,506"

As part of a massive $12-million project to improve and expand New Orleans’s City Park, the WPA built nine concrete vehicular bridges across the grounds between 1936 and 1939. Located behind the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Grandjean Bridge spans an inlet of Little Lake on a reinforced concrete rigid-frame arch. Constructed in 1938 to replace an older bridge, the structure reveals modernistic flourishes, including sections of vertical fluting, curving end walls and nautical-like lighting. A stylized WPA logo appears in counter relief across the southeast end post. Little used in Louisiana, the rigid-frame technology casts the superstructure and substructure monolithically as...

The overpass carrying Granite Avenue over what was then a freight and passenger railway (the North Shore Branch of the Staten Island Railway) was constructed in 1937, in conjunction with the lowering of the railroad right-of-way, as one link in a massive grade crossing removal project. 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 Manhattan. PWA Docket No. NY 4926.

The WPA worked to improve roads throughout Granite County, Montana. The agency allocated $119,458 for such projects during August 1938 alone.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted improvement work on many of Montpelier's bridges. The Granite Street Bridge was "given a new floor of four inch  creosoted yellow pine" in 1939. "The lumber was purchased by the W. P. A. Bond Issue ..." Furthermore, with WPA efforts Granite Street was "regraded with surface of crushed granite and asphalt penetration."

The bridge carrying Arkansas State Highway 74 over Granny Creek, ten miles west of Marshall, Arkansas, was constructed by the Work Projects Administration (W.P.A.) in 1940.

"West Salem's own Granville Park has the WPA's mark in its majestic gazebo and its artful bridges."

Prior to colonial settlement, the area of Granville State Forest was inhabited by the Tunxis Native American tribe. In the mid-1700s, English pioneer Samuel Hubbard purchased the land for farming and pasturage, and the river that runs through the forest is now named the Hubbard River. The property was bought and owned by Tiffany and Pickett Lumber Company near the turn of the 20th century. In the 1920s, the Commonwealth obtained the land from the lumber company but little improvements were made before the CCC Camp was established. The Civilian Conservation Corps began work on Granville State Forest in 1933. CCC...

The Grassy Creek Bridge is a stringer type bridge that carried Texas State Highway 105 over Grassy Creek in Grimes County, Texas southeast of Navasota. The bridge was designed and financed by the Texas Highway Department and the United States Bureau of Public Roads and built in 1934 by Edwin Artmann, contractor. A new bridge was built southwest of the old Grassy Creek Bridge and Highway 105 realigned to it. The old bridge is blocked to traffic. It is accessible by foot or bicycle but not attached to any trail or walkway.

The bridge carrying what was then known as Ocean Highway (presently known as County Road 619) over Grassy Sound was constructed as a Public Works Administration (PWA) project, as part of the largest New Deal construction effort in Cape May County, New Jersey. The bridge is still in use today. State.NJ.us: "In 1934 the county government created the Cape May County Bridge Commission as a means to apply for Federal Emergency Administration Funds to build bridges on the Ocean Highway and to bring to completion the promotional tourist route from Atlantic City to Cape May. The Ocean Highway bridges, five movable spans...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) created a farm-to-market road: Nebraska State Route 25, a.k.a. Great Plains Indian Highway, heading north from Hayes Center, Nebraska.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park occupies large areas of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. The park’s creation was a decades-long process, including advocacy in the late 19th century; legislation signed by President Calvin Coolidge in 1926; and donations and land acquisitions from small donors, the governments of North Carolina and Tennessee, and charitable organizations, such as the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund. Once the park’s existence was firmly established, funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) and labor from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made it both accessible and accommodating to the public. President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the park on...

The multiple arch steel and stone masonry bridge spanning the Little River at Elkmont Campground in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (Historic American Engineering Record, 1996). The bridge is stone veneer and multi-plate corrugated metal arches constructed on top of concrete piers. It originally was surfaced with crushed rock, but was later paved with asphalt. It is located on Elkmont Road, 1.95 miles from the intersection of Elkmont Road and Little River Road. The full bridge is 201 feet long and 22 feet wide. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees began construction in...

A bridge carrying Greaves Avenue over the newly sunken Staten Island Railway was built in the late 1930s, as one link in a large grade crossing removal project sponsored by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The project was referred in an article as Great Kills Road (possibly a former name for Greaves). National Bridge Inventory data indicate that the bridge has since been replaced.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed Green Fall Pond Road in Voluntown, Connecticut.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont during the 1930s. "The Depression-era legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps (established in 1933 as part of Roosevelt’s “New Deal”) is reflected on the Forest. At one time during the 1930's there were 5 active CCC camps on the Forest (Mt Tabor, Weston, Peru, West River and Rochester).  The men at these camps built roads, trails and campgrounds, fought fires, planted trees and generally established much of the infrastructure of the early National Forest. Today a few of the buildings and many of the features, travel ways and landscapes...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved Green Valley Road in the far corner of the Town of Mooers, New York in 1936.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) paved 34 streets in Hartford, Connecticut, including the 0.6-mile stretch of Greenfield Street from Woodland Street to Garden Street, as part of a $2.5 million, two-year paving project begun in 1937. The federal government contributed $1 million.

The federal Work Projects Administration put many men to work starting in 1935 with a Staten Island street repair and maintenance project along roads throughout the borough. The streets, many of which in New York City were still unpaved, were surfaced with bituminous macadam. Roads paved included the stretch of Greenleaf Avenue between Constant Ave. and Sawyer Ave.

34 federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers conducted a safety improvement project in Ringwood, New Jersey on what was then known as Midvale-Greenwood Lake Road (believed by Living New Deal to believe Greenwood Lake Turnpike). The dangerous stretch of road involved a 1,500-foot curve running along the north edge of the Wanaque Reservoir.