The Works Progress Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority built a lot of America as we know it today.
Launched as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the WPA and TVA were ambitious federal programs aimed at revitalizing the American economy and workforce during the 1930s.
The WPA focused on employing millions to construct public buildings, roads, parks, and cultural landmarks, while the TVA built dams, power plants, windmills, and helped improve navigation along the Tennessee River. Together, they transformed both the landscape and the livelihoods of Americans.
Scroll through and see the projects that revitalized the country and still keep it running today.
1
The Shawnee fossil plant
Operated by the TVA
2
The Nickajack Dam
Operated by the TVA
3
Great Falls Dam on the Caney Fork River in White County, Tennessee
Operated by the TVA
4
Wind turbines on Buffalo Mountain
Operated by the TVA
5
Chatuge Dam
Operated by the TVA
6
The Appalachia Dam
Operated by the TVA
7
The Timberline Lodge Hotel
Commissioned by the WPA, completed in 1939
8
River Walk, San Antonio, Texas
Commissioned by the WPA in 1939
9
Upland Auditorium, Upland, Nebraska
Commissioned by the WPA in 1936
10
Midway International Airport, Chicago, Illinois
Commissioned by the WPA in 1935
11
Santa Ana City Hall, Santa Ana, California
Commissioned by the WPA in 1935
12
Griffith Observatory built by the WPA
Los Angeles, California
13
WPA road development project
Circa 1940s
14
LaGuardia Airport, Queens, New York
Commissioned by the WPA in 1937
15
Construction on Tellico Dam
Built by the TVA
16
Workers at the site of Norris Dam, the first hydroelectric dam built by the TVA
1933
17
John Sevier Fossil Plant in Hawkins County, Tennessee
1956
18
A carpenter, wearing a contractor's employee badge, at work during the construction of Douglas Dam in East Tennessee
1942
19
The twin cooling towers and reactor containment buildings of TVA's Sequoyah Nuclear Plant
Chattanooga, Tennessee
20
Melton Hill Dam
Operated by the TVA
