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What were "public works projects"? What famous ones were part of the New Deal? What public works projects would you recommend for our society today?


The Public Works Administration focused on reconstructing areas by building dams and bridges that gave unemployed people jobs. It lowered unemployment rates and pushed it back to pre-Great Depression levels.

The PWA spent 3.3 billion dollars to build 34, 599 projects over the course of it's first two years.Some of the most famous projects organized by the PWA are the Triborough Bridge, the Lincoln Tunnel, the Overseas Highway, and the Pennsylvania Railroad. As for local projects, it built schools, hospitals, and courthouses.

If I could recommend any projects for our society today, it would be focused on community service projects- like helping Haiti or Chile. Instead of spending money to send militia there, we could send people with Peace Corps-like jobs to help orphanages and communities. Or maybe we could create energy saving jobs like the PWA did during the Great Depression. I think that because of the climate change, we could use energy efficient power sources like dams, wind mills, and more.