Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels Sites

The bridge carrying what was then known as Ocean Highway (presently known as County Road 619) over Townsends Inlet was constructed as a Public Works Administration (PWA) project, 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 and...

In 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) funded a series of street improvements in Keene, NH. This work included removing Keene Electric Railway tracks from West and Main Streets and Central Square and repaving the effected streets.

Trestle Glen Boulevard is a road about a mile long that connects the main road on the west shore of the Tiburon peninsula to the the main road on the east shore. It was completed circa 1937 as a WPA project. An old bridge on this road is likely WPA as well. The name Trestle Glen was not used until the 1950's. Before then it was called Reed's Road, probably because it was built on land belonging to Clothilde Reed, a descendant of the original Mexican land grantee John Reed. The name California City in the cited article refers to an area...

The Bootjack CCC camp CO. 1912 in Bootjack CA was involved in the surveying and construction of this road, initially built as a fire road and then into a normal two lane county road. According to articles in the Mariposa Gazette, surveying by the CCC was begun Jan 21, 1936, right-of-way for the road was secured by the Mariposa Chamber of commerce in February 1936. An interruption occurred when Co. 1912 moved to Tehachepi CA for 5 months. Once back, a seven mile section was begun November 1936. A March 1937 article mentions the beginning construction of a $20,000 concrete bridge...

The Triborough bridge linking up Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan over East River, is still known to New Yorkers by that name, even though it was officially renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in 2008. The Triborough Bridge is one of three major bridges, along with the Henry Hudson and the Bronx-Whitestone, built during the New Deal era to link the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx, and tie together the expanding highway system in and out of New York City.  Construction on the Triborough bridge began in 1929, but the Depression soon slowed progress on the project. In 1933, Robert Moses, head...

The State Highway 19 Bridge at the Trinity River on the Walker/Trinity county line, consists of two 250-foot Parker through truss spans, one 150-foot Parker through truss span, and 51 steel I-beam approach spans with a special metal picket-type rail. The project was a joint effort of the Federal Works Agency, Public Road Administration, the Texas Highway Department, and Walker and Trinity Counties. Work on the bridge project began in late 1939. It was completed in January of 1941 and opened in March of that year. The bridge was bypassed in 2003 by a new four-lane bridge to the south,...

The W.P.A. removed unneeded trolley rails in Middletown, CT. Project information: Description: "Remove trolley rails for salvage purposes" Official Project Number: 265‐1‐15‐79 Total project cost: $8,298.00 Sponsor: City of Middletown

The W.P.A. removed unneeded trolley rails in Norwich, CT. Project information: Description: "Remove abandoned car rails" Official Project Number: 265‐1‐15‐76 Total project cost: $58,398.00 Sponsor: City of Norwich

The W.P.A. removed unneeded trolley rails in Waterbury, CT. Project information: Description: "Remove trolley rails and restore track areas" Official Project Number: 265‐1‐15‐75 Total project cost: $56,550.00 Sponsor: City of Waterbury

A WPA project in West Reading, Pennsylvania involved the removal of trolley tracks from Penn Avenue.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Trout Creek bridge on state highway 58, a couple miles east of Santa Marguerita, in 1941.  This was part of a program of WPA road work all over San Luis Obispo County roads during the 1930s, as indicated by WPA "project cards" in the National Archives. WPA project cards are only indicative, however; they show which projects were planned, funded by the WPA and approved by President Franklin Roosevelt; they do not guarantee that the work was actually done, since the WPA usually proposed more projects than it could carry out.  In this case, the...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed and paved Tryon Avenue in Teaneck, New Jersey, an extension of West Palisade Avenue in Englewood to Teaneck Road. The road was considered a "necessary improvement for business development" in Englewood, as more residents of West Englewood (in Teaneck) would have access to the municipal road system and head to Englewood to shop.

"This structure is a combined preventorium and children's hospital, the two units being connected by a large recreation room. The preventorium consists of two dormitories, one for boys and one for girls, separated by a nurses' station, each dormitory accommodating 20 beds. The hospital has an X-ray and an examination and treatment room, three wards, eight single rooms, and the dining room and kitchen. The entire lay-out has a usable floor area of 13,750 square feet. The construction consists of reinforced-concrcic footings, wood frame with stucco finish on the exterior walls, and a mission tile roof. The nurses' home is a separate building...

A stretch of six miles of Tulare Lindsay Highway (Avenue 232) was widened and resurfaced with a federal grant of $25,000.   The money presumably came from the Bureau of Public Roads, but this has not been confirmed.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a road from the base of Tule Canyon to the top, circa 1940. The WPA made cuts and fills through the canyon, graded the road and paved it with caliche. The length of road built is now part of Texas State Highway 207. The official project number was 65-1-66-400.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)'s Camp Robinson, which housed Company #180, was stationed at Tunxis State Forest in Hartland, Connecticut. The camp was established June 13, 1933 and was discontinued July 18, 1941. Among other projects independently listed on other pages, work included: "12 miles of truck trails including today's ... Hall Road, construction of a house for the Forest Ranger, and miles of cross-country ski trails." The ski cabin and ski trail remain today. Other improvements included access roads and a cross country ski loop trail.

New Deal agencies realigned and reconstructed the Old Tioga road from 1933 to 1943, from Crane Flat to Tuolumne Meadows.  An important element of the road project was the bridge over the Tuolumne River, just east of the Tuolumne Meadows campground. The bridge was constructed in 1933-34. Funding came from the Public Works Administration (PWA); the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) managed construction, using private companies; and the National Park Service (NPS) oversaw all work in the park. The Tuolumne River bridge is a modern design of steel beams and concrete, but is dressed up with stone siding to accord with the...

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) laborers rebuilt Turner Road Bridge (believed to be at the point where it crosses Little River) in Charlton, Mass. after it was seriously damaged by floods in 1936.

The federal Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) allocated funds in 1936 to the tune of $372,722 (not adjusted for inflation) for the reconstruction of a span across the Connecticut River between the Town of Montague and Gill, Mass. The Turners Falls-Gill Bridge, which was constructed in 1937-8, has since been rehabilitated and is sometimes referred to as the Gill-Montague Bridge. A plaque on the bridge credits the United States Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 and features a project number; it is sometimes overlooked as the information is written in comparatively small lettering at the top of the plaque.

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) conducted the following road work in Auburn, Mass. WPA Bulletin: This cut-off in Auburn, on the Worcester Turnpike, was washed out by the Spring flood. A WPA construction project is rebuilding the cut-off and 30 feet of the macadam shoulders of the road. The exact location and identification of the road in question is unknown to Living New Deal.

W.P.A. project descriptions: "Veterans of Foreign Wars, West Roxbury, and Turtle Pond Parkways; the roadsides of these parkways were beautified for their entire lengths by grubbing, grading and seeding. Ten miles, or 176,000 square yards of property was reclaimed." "Dedham Parkway and Turtle Pond Parkway; a project in operation at the end of the year will provide a parking area on each of these two parkways in the Hyde Park district."

ParkRec.nd.gov: "Established in 1934, Turtle River State Park was one of a number of new parks built in North Dakota under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "New Deal" programs. ... In 1935, a CCC transient work camp, SP-5, was built in Larimore. It initially housed 185 young men, along with their commanding officers. They were assigned to build a new park nearby, originally called Grand Forks State Park. CCC construction projects in the park included bridges, roads, parking areas, foot paths and a number of stone and log buildings, many of which are still in use today. One of their notable achievements was the...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) carried out pavement repair and other, unspecified improvements to a segment of Twelfth Street NW, from Constitution Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue, in 1935-36.  The street was “widened to conform with the design of the Triangle area, and repaved with sheet asphalt pavement.”   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 repavings.        

In 1941, the Washington Post reported the start of a $1,158,000 road paving program carried out by the Public Roads Administration division of the Federal Works Administration (FWA). One of the streets slated to be paved was 21st Street between Virginia Avenue and C Street, NW. Although the street has been repaved since 1941, the New Deal played a role in its continued maintenance.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved a segment of Twenty-fourth Street, from Wagner Place to Good Hope Road. WPA workers graded this road, and also “placed old broken concrete and Macadam, for a depth of approximately seven inches, as a base source. This material was then rolled and covered with a bituminous material by maintenance forces…The completion of formed a necessary adjunct to the large private development in this vicinity”

"This bridge is in the north section of Baltimore. It connects the vehicular traffic on the eastern and western sides of the Jones Fall valley and crosses the Pennsylvania Railroad. It is approximately 1,375 feet long. The roadway is 40 feet wide with two 7-foot-10-inch sidewalks. There are two main arch spans, each 230 feet long, and three 30-foot arches near each end. It is faced with granite, constructed in the same manner as the Hilton Parkway bridges... The project was completed in January 1938 at a construction cost of $601,414 and a project cost of $603,322."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) carried out pavement repair and other, unspecified improvements to Twenty-Second Street NW, from Constitution Avenue to E Street, in 1935-36. The work was part of the $949,496 WPA allotment for DC roadwork for fiscal year 1936. This WPA roadwork is undoubtedly no longer visible, in part because the War Department building (now the State Department) was built over 22d Street in the early 1940s.

The WPA worked on Twin Peaks Blvd. between Clayton St. and Palo Alto Ave.

Tyler State Park was developed by CCC Company 2888 from 1935-1941: "Set into the Piney Woods of East Texas, Tyler State Park reflects two major park development efforts. The first, directed by landscape architect Ben K. Chambers, involved extensive forest reclamation and land rehabilitation that included tree planting, development of a road system, and construction of a dam and lake. Architect Joe C. Lair oversaw the other effort, which focused on the development of essential park buildings. Particularly noteworthy, the architect’s designs represent a clear break from the National Park Service rustic style so often used at CCC parks, including many...

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 845 built facilities at Tyrrell Park. The CCC camp at Tyrrell Park began operations on November 24, 1935. CCC personnel worked on building drainage ditches, roads, nature trails, picnic tables, a horse stable, recreational buildings, entrance portal and a public golf course. The park is still in use, but most of the CCC structures have been neglected then torn down one-by-one. Hurricane Rita in 2005 and Hurricane Ike damaged the CCC-built clubhouse, and the damage has not been repaired.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to "Improve US 11 on First Avenue from 85th Street to Cozy Corner" in Birmingham, Alabama.

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 along a dual carriageway that is now U.S. 13, through Smyrna, down to Bishops Corner, a place name for a community that lay just northeast of Cheswold, and through to Dover. The CWA also developed a road from Smyrna to White House, Delaware, and the construction continued north from Smyrna; the exact location and name of the road in question is unknown to Living New Deal. An average...

The federal Civil Works Administration constructed is now U.S. 17 in the vicinity of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. "Near Murrell's Inlet, Route #49, C.W.A. Project #97, Georgetown County, South Carolina". The Civil Works Administration operated from November 1933-March 1934 and helped to employ nearly four million men during the Great Depression. The men worked to build and improve bridges, roads and public oriented buildings. SC Route 49 became a part of US 17 in 1935." (Georgetown County Digital Library) A photo of the work is available at the source links below.

The former toll bridge connecting Alburg, Vermont and Rouses Point, New York, which carried U.S. 2 across Lake Champlain, was constructed between 1936 and 1937 with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The bridge was replaced with a no-toll bridge 50 years later. The PWA provided a $343,131 grant toward the $768,555 total cost of the project. 1011.]

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed U.S. 20 in LaPorte County near Michigan City, Indiana, a $46,576 project. WPA Project No. 65‐1‐52‐2366

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed U.S. 31 from "Jackson Scott Co line north to Jct US 50 & SR 9" in Indiana, a $57,628 project. The ~14-mile stretch of road encompasses U.S. 31 through Crothersville.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed U.S. 31 from Sellersburg to Henryville, Indiana, a $122,480 project.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to "Grade, drain, and improve US 31 from North Birmingham to Lewisburg, 1936."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to develop U.S. 4—improving, widening, and straightening the road—in Rutland County, in Mendon and "Sherburne" (Sherburne Pass, Killington), Vermont. WPA Project No. 165-1-12-76

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed U.S. 40 in Wayne County, Indiana from "Richmond to Ohio‐Ind. State line," an $25,837 project.