When Franklin Roosevelt came into office as President, a quarter of America's workforce was unemployed. He saw changing that as one of his first priorities. He established the Public Works Administration and Works Progress Administration, among others to get people back to work and earning steady paychecks.
There are economists and historians who still argue that these programs didn't change the unemployment numbers significantly. They say that it took entry into World War II to put a definitive end to the Great Depression. Whatever the truth, these programs completely changed the mood of the country for the better. Even almost a hundred years after they began, Roosevelt's initiatives are still being felt.
The Hoover Dam or Boulder Dam, the name changed according to which party was in power back in the early part of twentieth century America, put twenty thousand Americans to work at the height of construction on the project. It took five years to build at a cost of a million and a half dollars. The dam continues to operate and is considered an architectural masterpiece. Millions of tourists visit it and Lake Mead each year.
One of Roosevelt's favorite projects was the Grand Coulee Dam. The idea that you could control the powerful Columbia River to the extent that it flooded the driest sections of Washington State, making agriculture viable and putting farmers back to work, delighted him. It took nine years and sixty-five million dollars to accomplish it, but Mr. Roosevelt got his wish. This huge project still stands as one of the biggest concrete structures in the world.
There is no more visited part in the United States than the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. About ten million visitors tour it every year. The Grand Canyon, at five million visitors a year, it is a distant second to the Smoky. The park covers almost nine hundred acres of Tennessee and North Carolina wilderness. UNESCO has recognized the park for its cultural significance.
Building an underwater tunnel was not a common thing in 1930s America. This was an idea born before the channel tunnel between England and France and the Boston Big Dig. The Lincoln Tunnel, begun in 1934, was not completed until 1957, but opened for business twenty years earlier. The mile and a half drive connects New Jersey and Manhattan and is traversed by over forty million vehicles every year.
Construction on the Triborough Bridge began on one of the darkest days in American history, Black Friday 1929. The WPA completed it in 1936. There are three long span bridges, a number of shorter ones, approach roads and a viaduct connecting Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens. Today it is the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge and two hundred thousand travelers cross over it every single day.
The government climate has changed dramatically, and not for the better. Self-interest, gridlock, and special interest groups seem to have taken over. One wonders how Roosevelt would have handled the current climate when the country's future was at stake.
There are economists and historians who still argue that these programs didn't change the unemployment numbers significantly. They say that it took entry into World War II to put a definitive end to the Great Depression. Whatever the truth, these programs completely changed the mood of the country for the better. Even almost a hundred years after they began, Roosevelt's initiatives are still being felt.
The Hoover Dam or Boulder Dam, the name changed according to which party was in power back in the early part of twentieth century America, put twenty thousand Americans to work at the height of construction on the project. It took five years to build at a cost of a million and a half dollars. The dam continues to operate and is considered an architectural masterpiece. Millions of tourists visit it and Lake Mead each year.
One of Roosevelt's favorite projects was the Grand Coulee Dam. The idea that you could control the powerful Columbia River to the extent that it flooded the driest sections of Washington State, making agriculture viable and putting farmers back to work, delighted him. It took nine years and sixty-five million dollars to accomplish it, but Mr. Roosevelt got his wish. This huge project still stands as one of the biggest concrete structures in the world.
There is no more visited part in the United States than the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. About ten million visitors tour it every year. The Grand Canyon, at five million visitors a year, it is a distant second to the Smoky. The park covers almost nine hundred acres of Tennessee and North Carolina wilderness. UNESCO has recognized the park for its cultural significance.
Building an underwater tunnel was not a common thing in 1930s America. This was an idea born before the channel tunnel between England and France and the Boston Big Dig. The Lincoln Tunnel, begun in 1934, was not completed until 1957, but opened for business twenty years earlier. The mile and a half drive connects New Jersey and Manhattan and is traversed by over forty million vehicles every year.
Construction on the Triborough Bridge began on one of the darkest days in American history, Black Friday 1929. The WPA completed it in 1936. There are three long span bridges, a number of shorter ones, approach roads and a viaduct connecting Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens. Today it is the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge and two hundred thousand travelers cross over it every single day.
The government climate has changed dramatically, and not for the better. Self-interest, gridlock, and special interest groups seem to have taken over. One wonders how Roosevelt would have handled the current climate when the country's future was at stake.
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