7 Incredible Feats of Engineering Funded During the New Deal

Convincing evidence of the lasting good government can accomplish when it puts people to work

President Franklin D. Roosevelt made his first visit to a CCC camp, at Camp Fechner, Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, in early summer, 1933. U.S. government, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Improving America’s infrastructure is one of the few initiatives that garnered bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress last year. Among other things, the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes $110 billion in new funds for roads, bridges and major projects.

The United States government infrequently makes such large investments in the country’s infrastructure. Arguably the most notable example of infrastructure spending in U.S. history was during the Great Depression. Under President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” numerous agencies were created to put millions of people to work while making improvements throughout the country.

Three such agencies were the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which hired civilians for many local projects, the Work Projects Administration (WPA), which directly employed millions of out of work citizens to execute public works projects, and the Public Works Administration (PWA), which planned and funded construction projects that private companies built for the public’s benefit. Several projects funded during the New Deal were incredible feats of engineering that remain as permanent reminders of…