Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels Sites

The Works Progress Administration built a three-span bridge over Brushy Creek in the vicinity of Atmore. This bridge was part of a county-wide bridge construction project in Escambia County. The approximate cost of the entire program was $377,500.00.  

Just east of the Bryan Bridge across the Niobrara, the Veterans Conservation Corps completed a little park on 1.46 acres of ground purchased by the state for park purposes. A driveway was built at the east and south corner of the bridge. In the canyons and timber at the river’s edge, a footbridge was built, tables constructed, an oven built of concrete, and underbrush cleared away. Nearby residents considered the park one of the outstanding beauty spots of the state, taking advantage of the natural resources of the site for a marvelous park.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) performed road work in Bryce Canyon National Park from 1934-1941.  The CCC made grading improvements on the Rim Road (the 20 mile-long road through the park) and built service roads.  The exact locations of such work cannot be ascertained today, but the roads are still there. The CCC also built parking lots at the Bryce Canyon Lodge and the headquarters building in 1936 and 1939. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) did some road work as well, in 1938-1941.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed sidewalks along, and otherwise improved, Buckeye Road in Phoenix, Arizona during the 1930s.

The federal Work Projects Administration put many men to work starting in 1935 with a Bronx 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 penetrated macadam. Roads improved included the 0.4-mile stretch of Buhre Avenue between Mulford Ave. and what was then Eastern Blvd. (Eastern Boulevard provided the foundation for what is now the Bruckner Expressway.)

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) laborers worked on Bull Hill Road in Sunderland, Mass.

According to the Clovis Independent, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) provided funds to Fresno County in 1934, from which the "City of Clovis will have Sixth Street graded from Fulton to Polasky to drain Fulton Street, enlargement and raising of levee on drainage ditch on Ninth Street with a new culvert installed on the same ditch. These projects will cost about $800."  CWA funding was used almost entirely to hire unemployed workers in the winter of 1933-34. The name of 6th St has been changed to Bullard Avenue. This investigator didn't see any sign of the ditch. 

One of the 26 bridges that were destroyed or damaged by the 1936 flood. A Maine Highway report notes that the reconstruction of these bridges was a U.S. Works Program Flood Relief project and were handled under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Public Roads, U.S. Department of Agriculture. All bridges were placed under construction in 1936. Labor was provided on some by the Works Progress Administration. Before the flood, the Bullseye bridge was a wooden covered bridge that was noted for its circular windows which is where it got its name. The 1936 town report notes in the forward that...

The Works Progress Administration built a bridge in Bumblebee, Yapavai County. Project #38, completed circa 1936.

The WPA worked on Bundy Drive in 1941.

The WPA carried out construction and improvements on Bunker Hill in Charlotte Amalie. Road construction and improvements carried out by the WPA in the Virgin Islands typically included “clearing the old roadway widening existing curves, blasting rock from the road surface and drains, relocating where necessary, installing culverts, preparing the subgrade and placing the bituminous macadam surface.”

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 lengthy segment of Bunker Hill Road NE, from Twentieth Street to the District of Columbia line.   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 roadway has been repaved several times since and this work is undoubtedly invisible today.

"During the 1930s, taking advantage of the public works programs offered by the Depression-era New Deal, Burlingame became home to the 141st Company of the Civilian Conservation Corps. It was the first, the state headquarters, and one of five such camps in Rhode Island. Beginning in 1933, out of work young men, in their late teens and early twenties were put to work making roads and trails. In addition they built fire places, camp sites, and picnic areas, while making recreational improvements to the beaches of Watchaug Pond. Forest management activities went on throughout Rhode Island, particularly in the aftermath of...

$75,000 in federal funds constructed this steel and concrete bridge over Burns Creek on former State Route 56, now State Route 1 (Cabrillo Highway) in Big Sur, California, near the location of the famous Esalen Institute.

In 1940, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a new roadway at Burns Street between East Capitol and Blaine streets in the district's northeast quadrant. This project was part of a massive New Deal program of street paving and upgrades around the city of Washington DC.  Most such work is invisible today beneath subsequent repavings.

The Burnside Tunnel, historically referred to as the Barnes Road vehicle tunnel, improved traffic movement through Portland’s West Hills by straightening the roadway and removing steep grades.  Completed in 1940, it was one of three tunnels constructed in the West Hills with the help of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), along with the NW Cornell Tunnels. The 230 foot long concrete-lined tunnel is wide enough for vehicles lanes in each direction as well as sidewalks on either side of the roadway. The Burnside Tunnel features beautiful stone masonry portals made of rubble and squared local basalt. Further design details include decorative...

The Burr's Ferry Bridge is built over the Sabine River where Texas State Highway 63 and Louisiana State Highway 8 meet. The bridge consists of three Parker though truss spans and 34 concrete girder spans. At the time the bridge project was under consideration, the road was an "improved dirt road," reportedly impassable much of the year with a toll ferry across the Sabine River. Congress passed the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act on April 8, 1935. This act gave Texas and Louisiana grant money for road and bridge construction. Projects funded under this act were subject to special labor provisions. Among...

"Completed in 1936, the bridge consists of three skewed semicircular arches with multiplates fabricated by the Hardesty Manufacturing Company. It features rusticated stone facing and grapevined mortar joints, trademarks of WPA workmanship in southeastern Colorado. It is Colorado's only WPA bridge of skewed construction employing a multiplate liner."   (www.historycolorado.org)

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved Bush Road near the village of Mooers Forks, New York in 1936.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to improve many roads in San Francisco, including the stretch of Bush St. between Fillmore St. and Presidio Ave.

The Texas Highway Department and the United States Bureau of Public Roads built an underpass in 1939 to separate the grade of U.S. Route 79 and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad (currently Business U.S. Highway 79 and Union Pacific Railroad) in Taylor, Texas. The Texas Highway Department designed the bridge and L. H. Lacy Company constructed it.

Buttermilk Hollow Road was built as part of a New Deal project: the Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $299,852 grant for the project, whose total cost was $475,186. PWA Docket No. PA 2109.

The Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1933-35.  It was part of a much larger project that included widening the canal and three bridges across it, for which the PWA made a grant of $6,138,000. (Short & Stanley-Brown 1939) The bridge was designed by Parsons, Klapp, Brinckerhoff, and Douglas, along with Mead and White, for the Army Corps of Engineers, which operates all three bridges and the canal.   The main space is 544 feet long and has 135-foot clearance when raised (Wikipedia) At the time...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) improved a segment of C Street NW, from Second Street to John Marshall Place. This section of road was part of a PWA-funded project to widen, realign, repave, and install sidewalks along streets, to accommodate the new Municipal Center building (also a PWA-funded project).

This project involved two separate roads, 48 feet wide (four lanes each way) with Pacific Electric Tracks in the center. It included the Pilgrimage Bridge (Vine St) and adjacent frontage roads, Barham Blvd overcrossing and Barham offramps.

The original Caldecott Tunnel was built with the aid of the Public Works Administration (PWA). Out of a total cost of $4 million, the PWA provided $1.1 million, the state $700,000 and the highway district sold $2.3 million in bonds, which were repaid from gas tax revenues (Oakland Tribune 1937).  Plans for the tunnel had long been in the works, as automobiles began to replace trolleys after World War I. A Joint Highway District was created in 1929 to undertake the project and money was sought from the federal government from the outset of the New Deal (Tribune 1933).  Once PWA...

The original two-bore Caldecott Tunnel was built with the aid of the Public Works Administration (PWA). Out of a total cost of $4 million, the PWA provided $1.1 million, the state $700,000 and the highway district $2.3 million in bonds, which were repaid from gas tax revenues (Oakland Tribune 1937).  Plans for the tunnel had long been in the works as automobiles began to replace trolleys after World War I.  A Joint Highway District was created in 1929 to undertake the project and money was sought from the federal government from the outset of the New Deal.  Once PWA funding was...

By building abutments and retaining walls, access was made possible to properties hereto inaccessible due to precipitous slopes of the hill. this work was of a precarious nature and required skill and courage. The photographs show the little homes on the edge of the slope. Ordinarily this work would be done by a contractor specializing in underpinning and foundation work.--Healy, p. 49.

$5,000 in federal funds were used for grading and surfacing 1 mile of California Route 20 (formerly CR 15) from the Southern Pacific RR underpass to the east end of the city, during the Great Depression.

2.5 miles of California route 113 (formerly 87) from Robbins south was surfaced under a federal grant totaling $20,000.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to improve many roads in San Francisco, including the stretch of California St. from Fillmore to Presidio Ave. "Consisted of narrowing the sidewalks ten feet from Fillmore to Presidio Avenue with all work incidental thereto, such as reconstructing catch basins, moving fire hydrants, street signs, recurbing and repairing. This improvement created a wide artery providing for additional traffic to the Richmond District from downtown."--Healy, p. 43.

In March 1936, the Connecticut River Valley was inundated by one of the most severe floods in recorded history. The water level reached over 12 feet above flood stage and carried huge chunks of ice down the river. The raging water and ice knocked out dams, washed away homes, and lifted bridges off their footings, including the bridge that connects Northampton to Hadley via Route 9. This was and is a heavily traveled route so immediate reconstruction of the bridge was imperative. The Massachusetts Department of Public Works requested and received funds to rebuild the bridge from the federal government through...

Camas National Wildlife Refuge lies in southeast Idaho along the Camas River and just west of the Grand Tetons of Wyoming.  Its 10,000 acres are half lakes, ponds, and marshlands and half grass sagebrush uplands, meadows, and farms.  It is a major viewing site for swans, geese and curlews, among other birds and wildlife. Camas NWF was created under the New Deal in 1937.  Lacking further details, we can only say it is likely to have been enacted by a presidential Executive Order and carried out by the Bureau of Biological Survey, as were most wildlife refuges of the New Deal....

Boca Raton, Florida's historic Camino Real Bridge was constructed with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA provided a $43,363 grant for the project, whose total cost was $94,163. Construction occurred between September 1938 and May 1939. The bridge had been scheduled for demolition and replacement, but due its historic nature it has instead been renovated and is still in use today. PWA Docket No. 1338

The Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out repair and maintenance work on Camino Rio Grande in Morovis.

"Between 1935 and 1940, Massachusetts and the federal government, primarily using Works Project Administration funds, constructed 63 buildings (all but Buildings 102 and the old Williams Hospital have since been demolished) and two, 500-foot (150 m) wide turf runways at Otis Field. The project was the largest WPA project in state history, employing over 600 workmen. In 1938, Governor Charles F. Hurley dedicated Camp Edwards, named after the former commander of the 26th Infantry Division, Major General Clarence Edwards." (Wikipedia) WPA Bulletin: The Bourne WPA Notional Guard Camp Project is the largest undertaking of this kind in the country. It is twenty-three square...

Now the site of the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, Camp Upton (near Yaphank, New York), was originally "created in 1917 to house and train soldiers for the United States." Camp Upton and its surroundings was the site of New Deal activity throughout the Great Depression. Four CCC camps based at Camp Upton during the summer of 1934 were involved with, among other things, "the clearing of scrub oak, the planting of trees suited to the type of soil ... the building of fire lines and fire breaks and construction of emergency water holes for fire fighting." (2) The CCC...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) paved 34 streets in Hartford, Connecticut, including the 1.1-mile stretch of Campfield Avenue from Maple Avenue to Victoria Road, as part of a $2.5 million, two-year paving project begun in 1937. The federal government contributed $1 million.

The Works Progress Administration completed improvements on Canaan-Rosendal Road on St. Thomas. The work included blasting away rock outcroppings to smooth the road surface.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved a segment of Canal Road, from Chain Bridge Road to Reservoir Road. This was a WPA “roadside beautification” project that likely included the planting of shrubs; and “This project necessitated major side drainage in back of the curbing, the sloping of the banks and the construction of two walls, all within the limits of public space.”