President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs aimed to provide recovery and limited relief during the Depression by providing funds for public works projects, and thus jobs, for the unemployed. Public works programs literally rebuilt Washington State, from Olympic National Park and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to city parks, backcountry trails, and rural homesteads. Most dramatically, the construction of Grand Coulee and Bonneville dams changed the state’s waterways and provided the power that fueled the Northwest’s war industries—most notably, aircraft—during World War II. Public works programs established a social vision of restoring self-sufficiency and dignity to American workers, though they all too often worked with a limited vision of those workers as white, skilled men.
The Public Works Administration (PWA) was one of a series of federal agencies formed out of Roosevelt’s “hundred days” of legislation following his 1933 inauguration. The PWA funded large-scale construction projects and provided skilled workers with jobs. In its first year the regional state relief agency received $10 million in federal aid to support the construction of the Deception Pass Bridge, county roads, expanding the state penitentiary, and financed scientific mineral and natural resource surveys. Public works projects soon expanded to include locally proposed, small-scale projects in counties and townships across the state. Over 54,000 people were at work repainting county buildings, fixing roads, making clothes for the Red Cross, and clearing land by the end of 1933. In the islands of San Juan County alone, over 10% of the adult population was employed by the federal government.
While large-scale construction projects like Grand Coulee Dam, the Lake Washington Floating Bridge, and Olympic National Park are most visible, federal funds promoted both large- and small-scale projects in rural, urban, and backcountry areas, combining construction and engineering work with service. Federal funds helped build 2,000 feet of Bremerton’s sewer system; clear log jams on Vashon island; build livestock pavilions in Sunnyside; construct tennis courts in Roslyn; build wildlife refuges and fish hatcheries on the coast; military cemeteries in Retsil; provide childcare, shoe repair, and sewing services in many cities; and build parks and playgrounds.
Public works funds were administered by a rotating series of state and federal agencies: the State Emergency Relief Commission in 1933; the Civil Works Administration from 1933-34; the Washington and Federal Emergency Relief Administrations from 1934-1935; and the Works Progress Administration (later, Works Projects Administration) from 1935 through the war years. According to historians Paul Dorpat and Genevieve McCoy, by 1941, the WPA had funded 28,000 miles of road, 1,000 bridges, 26 libraries, 193 parks, 380 miles of sewers, 15,500 traffic signs, 90 stadiums, and 760 miles of water mains in Washington.
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