More Jobs

By the middle of Roosevelt's first term, the economy is just beginning to turn around, and the focus is still on creating jobs. CCC work camps employ about half a million, but that leaves another seven million unemployed. 

The initial construction programs Congress created in 1933 are achieving mixed results. The biggest of these is the TVA flood control program, which includes the explicit goal of bringing electric power to the rural South.

By 1934, Congress is ready to expand this effort in a big way, by creating the WPA. This agency is responsible for most of the truly huge government-funded programs of the era, from hydro-electric dams to big-city airports.
WPA: Works Progress Administration, 1930s

  Going Really Big
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) is the centerpiece of Roosevelt's New Deal. It's nation-wide in scope, amounting to America's first big 'infrastructure' program. The government has subsidized canals and railroads in the past, but this is a much larger effort. WPA construction projects nearly double total federal spending.

WPA: Concrete and Hoover Dam, 1930s

  Concrete Monsters
The biggest dams are all out west. Biggest of all is Hoover Dam, on the Colorado River (top left and right). Over 700 feet tall, it creates America's largest reservoir, which is the main source of irrigation for the American Southwest. The other two giants out west are built on the Columbia River, which separates Washington State from Oregon. Grand Coulee Dam is 550 feet tall, and is also built to provide irrigation and electrical power. Bonneville Dam (center bottom) is closer to the coast, and much lower.


TVA: Tennessee Valley Authority, 1930s map

  Huge TVA Footprint
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is created to build dams, and administer electrical power, over an extensive rural area that was previously almost without power. The Tennessee River receives water from many smaller sources in the Appalachian Mountains, to the east. To control flooding and provide power, 11 major dams are constructed on the Tennessee itself, and 14 smaller dams on tributaries. Utility poles are erected to finally bring electric power to millions of back-country farms.