New Deal Accomplishment: Over 68,000 freight cars, passenger cars, and locomotives built or repaired

Above: The New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA) provided financing for the building of at least 24,170 new freight cars and the repair of 40,877 existing freight cars. The freight car above is an X31 automobile box car, one of 7,000 freight cars PWA financed for the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1934. Sources: (1) Statistics from a PWA accounting report, highlighted in, "PWA Aided By Gain On Rails: Government Investment In Carrier Bonds Helped by Business Increase," Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, in The Oklahoma News (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), November 22, 1936, p. 4; (2) "New Car Contract Nears Completion; P.R.R. Files Report," Harrisburg Telegraph (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), December 12, 1934, p. 10. Photo from "Pennsylvania Builds New Automobile and Flat Cars," Railway Age, Vol. 96, No. 13 (March 31, 1934), p. 462. Unknown photographer, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: The PWA's financing of freight cars (as well as passenger cars and locomotives, see below), put 100,000 or more Americans back to work (see, e.g., "What The PWA Is Doing: PWA Aid For Railroads," The Brooklyn Citizen (Brooklyn, New York), July 23, 1934, p. 5). The men above, working at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad shop in Keyser, West Virginia, 1934-1935, were part of that 100,000. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: A 1934 letter to the editor bemoans PWA stimulus money for the railroads. Besides the bad math (e.g., PWA loaned 200 million to the railroads, not 2 billion), the writer doesn't seem to understand the nature of stimulus spending - which is to create a jumpstart and foundation for bigger and better things (see next image and caption), not simply as a singular event. This same misinformed thinking is very prevalent today and greatly hinders progress, especially--but not exclusively--during downturns in the economy. The excerpt above is from The Ottawa Citizen (Canada), November 20, 1934. Image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: This article excerpt, from The Houston Chronicle, August 30, 1937, highlights how PWA money to the railroads (loaned mostly from 1933 to 1935) helped the railroad industry leave the Great Depression behind. An exciting new era of railroading was sparked by PWA / New Deal investment (also see The Comet streamliner photo and caption below ). Image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: This article excerpt--from The Decatur Daily Review (Decatur, Illinois), February 5, 1934--highlights the nationwide economic effect of a PWA loan to the Pennsylvania Railroad (a loan that facilitated the purchase of new electric locomotives and the necessary rail infrastructure). Image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: The PWA financed at least 195 new locomotives for various railroad companies, and another 1,928 were repaired (see source note, "statistics from...," in the first caption at the top of this blog post). The photo and caption above are from a larger story in The Binghamton Press (Binghamton, New York), November 8, 1934, p. 10. Image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: The PWA also funded several streamliner trains, such as The Comet, built for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company in 1935. Other PWA-funded streamliners included the Hiawatha, the Green Diamond, and the Flying Yankee. These fast and futuristic looking trains caused great excitement in America and drove ridership numbers up so high that some of the PWA-funded streamliners could not keep up with demand and had to be replaced within a few years (a "victim of their own success," as some articles and writers put it). It was a truly a golden era for trains, sparked by New Deal action. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: Passengers aboard the Green Diamond streamliner train (Illinois Central Railroad), ca. 1936. The PWA funded 303 new passenger cars and repairs to another 947 (see source note, "statistics from...," in the first caption at the top of this blog post). Image from an Illinois Central brochure, scanned from a personal copy and used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: The PWA helped usher in the Diesel era of trains (Diesel is more efficient than coal), with financing for the groundbreaking Locomotive No. 50 of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Unknown photographer, scanned from a private copy and used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: The PWA-funded GG1 electric locomotives of the Pennsylvania Railroad are legendary. As the Wikipedia page for them notes: "The class was known for its striking art deco shell, its ability to pull trains at up to 100 mph, and its long operating career of almost 50 years." Seen here is "Old Rivets," the first of the GG1 series. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: The New Deal had many other railroad projects, for example, tunnels, bridges, track improvements, and grade crossing removal (grade crossings are intersections where vehicles and trains meet at the same level, making impact more likely). Here is a PWA-funded grade crossing elimination on Staten Island. It appears that a new bridge was installed, lifting the track up some, and that the road was lowered also (notice the cutaway ground on the far side of the bridge, and the workmen installing a new sidewalk). Photo from the National Archives.

Above: "Engine House and Bunkers," an oil painting by Austin Mecklem (1894-1951), created while he was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project, 1934. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

A New Deal for Freight, a New Deal for Passengers

From the captions and sources above, we see that PWA financing bought 24,170 new freight cars and repaired another 40,877; bought 303 new passenger cars and repaired another 947; and bought 195 new locomotives and repaired another 1,928.

Adding this up, we get over 68,000 freight cars, passenger cars, and locomotives built or repaired.

New Deal Accomplishment: Millions of free dental examinations & treatments for low-income Americans

Above: Very early on there was a New Deal concern for dental health. These photos show dental health projects conducted by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) between 1933 and 1934. The exact nature of these projects is not described, but they were probably designed to teach children good brushing habits, at CWA-run nursery schools and/or dental clinics. Photo from: Henry G. Alsberg, America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration, New York: Coward-McCann Publishers, 1934, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: A CWA dental clinic in New Jersey. Photo from: Henry G. Alsberg, America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration, New York: Coward-McCann Publishers, 1934, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: "CWA Dental Clinic No. 2," a lithograph by Elizabeth Olds (1896-1991), created while she was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project, 1933-1934. Image from the Nebraska State Historical Society.

Above: This child is receiving dental care at a WPA clinic in New Orleans, 1936. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: The WPA also operated mobile dental clinics, such as the one highlighted in this newspaper excerpt, from The Pensacola Journal (Pensacola, Florida), February 5, 1941. Image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: The New Deal's Farm Security Administration (FSA) had dental clinics for farm families in need of assistance, such as this mobile clinic in Caldwell, Idaho, 1941. Photo by Russell Lee, FSA, courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: A young patient is welcomed aboard the FSA's mobile dental clinic (see previous photo). Photo by Russell Lee, FSA, courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: The New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA) facilitated better dental care by funding new hospitals that had dental care sections, and also by funding educational facilities, such as this dental college building. Image from: C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown, Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1939.

A New Deal For Our Teeth

Cumulative statistics for New Deal dental projects--examinations and procedures--are difficult to come by, and so perhaps the best we can say is that "millions" of lower-income Americans received dental examinations and procedures thanks to New Deal programs, 1933-1943.

Here are some statistics and information to consider when thinking about total New Deal dental work:

1. The Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) reported 782,707 dental examinations, in 13 states, between 1934 and 1935.

2. A 1939 WPA summary reported over 4.2 million people receiving "medical and dental" examinations, and 3.5 million treatments, at clinics operated or assisted by WPA (unfortunately, the statistic does not separate dental from other medical exams and treatments).

3. A July 9, 1940 WPA press release noted 1,000,000 annual "dental examinations and treatments" in school health programs assisted by WPA; and the Final Report on the WPA states, "In thousands of schools the children were given dental examinations..."

4. Newspaper archives are replete with articles describing the New Deal's voluminous dental projects. For example, the article, "Survey Shows WPA Activities in Neligh and Antelope County" (Neligh News, Neligh, Nebraska, April 11, 1940), reported 35,000 dental examinations and treatments in the first two weeks of January 1940.

5. Young Americans enrolled in the New Deal's National Youth Administration (NYA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) received dental care. For example, in the article "CCC Dental Work Is 'Big Business': 'See Your Dentist Twice a Year' Is Made Possible by Army Mobile Units" (The Columbus Daily Telegram, Columbus, Nebraska, February 13, 1939), we learn that "In one year, 168 mobile units cared for over 460,000 patients, making over 300,000 temporary and permanent fillings, 170,000 extractions, and 170,000 other dental procedures" (emphasis added).

Clearly, millions received dental care via the New Deal, and perhaps even tens of millions. 

"There are literally thousands of [CCC] enrollees who never had any dental attention in their lives. The number of teeth damaged through neglect to such an extent that restoration was impossible was almost beyond belief. There can be no doubt that such conditions of the teeth excited a marked deleterious effect on health. It is safe to say that over 90 percent of the volume of dental attention never would have been given had these young men not enrolled in the CCC. Work of this nature contributes not only to the betterment of health immediately but in all probability contributes greatly to the future welfare of the patients."

--Dr. Charles R. Reynolds, Surgeon General, U.S. Army, as reported in The Columbus Daily Telegram (Columbus, Nebraska), February 13, 1939, p. 5.

New Deal Accomplishment: Over 1.2 million new culverts

Above: One of the one million+ new culverts that the WPA installed across the United States. This photograph, taken on May 8, 1936, shows a 48-inch corrugated metal culvert installed on the Foxville Farm-to-Market road in Frederick County, Maryland. Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives.

Above: Another WPA culvert project in Frederick County, Maryland, this one on the Burkittsville-Petersville Farm-to-Market Road, April 20, 1937. Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives.

Above: A WPA-installed culvert on Lake Shore Drive, Cleveland, Ohio, ca. 1936. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: The description for this photograph, taken in Binghamton, New York, between 1935 and 1943, reads, "One of the 2 culverts built by WPA workers in the city. This project is known as the Bayless Ave. Culverts and employed 37 men." Photo from the National Archives.

Above: The description for this photograph, taken on April 24, 1939, reads, "Showing new style WPA-built galvanized culvert with concrete head-wall. Typical of 30 odd such structures in the city of Brewton, Alabama, which have replaced old style wooden structures in the city." Photo from the National Archives.

Above: A rock culvert built by WPA workers, in or near Zion National Park, Utah, 1942. Photo from the Library of Congress.

Above: A CCC-built culvert at Theodore Roosevelt National Park (then called the Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area), North Dakota, ca. 1935. Photo by Jerome Orf, provided courtesy of the Theodore Roosevelt Center, Dickinson State University.

Keeping the water flowing

Culverts are often taken for granted because they're usually "out-of-sight, out-of-mind." However, they're vital tools for preventing road damage, flooding, and soil erosion. Between 1935 and 1943, WPA workers installed 1,052,612 new culverts across the U.S. and reconstructed or improved another 126,321 (Final Report on WPA, p. 131). The National Youth Administration (NYA) installed 164,747 new culverts and reconstructed or improved another 39,161 (NYA Final Report, p. 140). 

The Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) reported 10,651 new large culverts installed and 11,395 existing large culverts improved (Final Report for the Work Division of FERA, p. 41); and in his book Long-Range Public Investment: The Forgotten Legacy of the New Deal, Robert Leighninger, Jr., notes 10,000 large culverts installed by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) (p. 51).

There were many more culverts installed by other New Deal programs, mainly by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Public Works Administration (PWA), but these totals do not seem to have been widely-reported. 

From the above statistics we can see that the New Deal installed over 1.2 million new culverts, but the exact number could be around 1.5 to 2 million.

New Deal Accomplishment: Over 106 million books repaired

Above: These women are employed in the New Deal's Civil Works Administration (CWA, 1933-1934). It's unclear how many school and library books CWA workers repaired, but it was certainly a very large number. Newspaper archives are filled with articles such as: "Library Assisted With CWA Money: 5,375 Books Repaired On Outlay of $742" (The Scranton Republican, Scranton, Pennsylvania, March 8, 1934, p. 7); "Women of CWA Repair 8,887 Books In County" (The Picket-Journal, Red Lodge, Montana, January 25, 1934, p. 1); and "20,000 School Books Cleaned and Repaired" (Reno Evening Gazette, Reno, Nevada, February 19, 1934, p. 10, noting CWA). Photo from: Henry G. Alsberg, America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration, New York: Coward-McCann Publishers, 1934, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.


Above: Americans employed in the Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) repaired at least 3,125,000 books. Photo and statistic from: The Emergency Work Relief Program of the FERA, April 1, 1934 - July 1, 1935 (1935).

Above: The description for this WPA photograph reads: "Bookmending exhibit of project 7036 (Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, Maryland) at the Fifth Annual National Folk Festival held May 6th, 7th, and 8th, 1938, Constitutional Hall, Washington, D.C.." Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives.

Above: The description for this WPA photograph, taken in Maryland between 1935 and 1943, reads in part: "The second step in bookmending is sewing through with clamp and drill when center sections of books are broken." Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives.

Above: This photograph was taken on October 11, 1938, at the WPA's Manhattan Book Repair Shop at 53 West 23rd Street. Between 1935 and 1943, WPA workers repaired 94,706,000 school and library books across the U.S. (Final Report on the WPA Program, p. 133). Photo from the National Archives.

Above: Another scene at the WPA book repair shop in Manhattan, 1938. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: A National Youth Administration (NYA) book repair project in Rayne, Louisiana, 1937. Young men and women in the NYA repaired over 8,900,000 books (NYA's final report, p. 174). The above newspaper clipping is part of the larger article, "Leche Gets $1,000,000 NYA Fund During His First Year," The Daily Progress (Hammond, Louisiana), May 14, 1937, p. 47. Image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: You can still find books that have stamps and stickers indicating WPA repair work, such as this copy of William H. Elson's Elson Primary School Reader (Chicago, IL: Scott, Forseman and Company, 1912). Image scanned from a personal copy, 2025.

Above: Thanks to the WPA's repair work, children could read the many stories inside the Elson Primary School Reader, such as Taro and the Turtle, a Japanese tale about being kind to animals. Image scanned from a personal copy.

Above: A sticker showing WPA work on a copy of Howard Pyle's The Story of King Arthur and his Knights (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1903). Image scanned from a personal copy, 2025.

Putting Books Back Into Service!

If we add up the number of books that FERA, WPA, and NYA repaired (again, it's unclear how many CWA repaired), we can see that the New Deal repaired over 106 million books.

According to an article on the website of the American Bookbinders Museum, WPA repair work was more about practical use of books than long-lasting preservation (which, in the case of schools and libraries, is arguably the better approach, as these books were intended to be used as teaching tools and/or to instill a love of reading, not to end up as museum pieces): 

"WPA book repairers utilized a number of methods meant to return the books to service quickly, but without regard to the book’s long-term health. These methods included simple mending of torn pages, drilling holes using awls and sewing through the pages of books where the binding had completely fallen apart, cleaning soiled covers and pages, regluing pages to book spines, inserting typewritten pages where originals were missing, and rehousing volumes with conservation materials where covers were beyond repair. Sometimes they applied shellac to the edges of the printed pages as a preservative. In the case of school textbooks, most of which were in terrible condition, workers might cannibalize some copies in order to create complete books."

New Deal Accomplishment: Over 400 new airports & landing fields; over 1,200 new airport buildings

Above: Whenever there are economic downturns the unemployed are demonized. It happened during the Great Depression, the Great Recession (see, e.g., here and here), and it will happen again--like clockwork--during the next economic calamity. People with media megaphones will try to convince us that things would be perfectly fine if "lazy-good-for-nothings" would simply get off the couch and find a job. It is a habitual and gross distortion of reality, and lets the rich and powerful off the hook, no matter what crime, fraud, or mistakes they made that caused or contributed to the problem. Marriner Eccles, a successful banker and the Fed Chairman from 1934-1948, said in 1933: "The present condition [i.e., the Great Depression, unemployment] is not the fault of the unemployed, but that of our business, financial, and political leadership." Further, and as the image above makes clear, there is a grand irony to the demonization of the unemployed; and that is this: the unemployed created much of the transportation infrastructure that their critics and tormentors enjoy today! - roads, bridges, sidewalks, park trails, and airports mainly, but also a good number of tunnels, docks, subways, and railroad track improvements (e.g., grade-crossing removal). These hundreds of thousands of projects also contributed mightily to America's post-war ascent to become the world's leading economic power. Image above from the WPA publication, America Spreads Her Wings (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1937).

Above: A map of airports and landing fields built or improved by relief workers in the New Deal's Civil Works Administration (CWA), Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), and Works Progress Administration (WPA), 1933-1937. This type of work would continue into the early war years and would contribute to America's victory over the Axis powers. Image from the WPA publication, America Spreads Her Wings (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1937).

Above: These pictographs show how New Deal airport work facilitated economic expansion with greatly increased passenger, mail, and package delivery. Images from the WPA publication, America Spreads Her Wings (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1937).

Above: The WPA's development of the Peter O. Knight Airport in Tampa, Florida gives us a good illustration of the range of New Deal airport work. The description for this photograph, taken around 1937, reads, "WPA work included: Paving runways, grading and sprigging [planting ground cover, like grasses and shrubs]; constructing sea plane ramp; hangar; administration building, paving taxi strips, aprons, roadway to administration building; parking area; muck grass area [sod]; installing lights; fencing; removing old and constructing new runways; pulling and redriving existing bulkheads; constructing seawall and placing fills; filling in existing canal and cutting and relocating canal; demolishing old and constructing new bridge; widening and surfacing streets; moving and resetting curbs; rebuilding catch basins, drainage facilities; sidewalks and handrails." Photo from the National Archives.

Above: A WPA-built hangar in Little Rock, Arkansas. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: Much of the WPA's airport work probably still exists, unseen and taken for granted, such as drainage work. These WPA workers are installing a 30-inch drainage pipe at the Rochester Airport (New York), May 1936. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: The WPA constructed and then expanded West Virginia's Morgantown Airport, 1935-1939. The description for this photograph, taken at the construction site in September 1936, reads, "Huge scraper is at work shaping out one of the runways on the field." For a detailed description of the airport's development, see this letter from Elmer W. Prince, city manager for Morgantown, dated November 17, 1941, linked from Morgantown Airport's website, accessed July 16, 2025. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: Lights installed by WPA at an airport in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1936. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: "Man's Dream," an artwork by Harry Sternberg (1904-2001), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1938. According to the Wikipedia article for Sternberg, he once said, "In participating in the WPA, I felt that I was part of one of the most vital and important cultural movements in America" (citing: Becker, Heather (2002). Art for the People: The Rediscovery and Preservation of Progressive and WPA-era Murals in Chicago Public Schools, 1904-1943. Chicago, Il: Chronicle Books). Image courtesy of GSA and the Illinois State Museum.

Above: A beautifully-designed administration building at the Albuquerque Airport, New Mexico, built by WPA between 1935 and 1940. Photo from: Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration, Report on Progress of the WPA Program, June 30, 1940.

Above: At a small airport in Middleboro, Kentucky, in rural Bell County, WPA workers remove stumps in preparation for landing field extensions, 1936. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: A photo collage of the WPA's most famous airport project, La Guardia. Photo from: Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration, Report on Progress of the WPA Program, June 30, 1940.

Above: The New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA) also funded hundreds of airport projects. The description for this photograph, ca. 1936, reads, "The Administration Building of San Francisco's Municipal Airport. This building was constructed with the aid of PWA funds." Photo from the National Archives.

Above: Young Americans in the New Deal's National Youth Administration (NYA) worked on airports too, and also learned airport & aircraft trades. Article from the San Angelo Standard-Times (San Angelo, Texas), November 21, 1940; image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: The Triple Cs worked on dozens of landing fields, including this one in Alaska. Article excerpt of from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, June 28, 1939; image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

A New and Plentiful Deal for Airplanes

CWA: The Civil Works Administration had about 1,400 airport and airway projects (Analysis of Civil Works Program Statistics, p. 27).

FERA: The Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration had 2,334 projects involving airports and emergency landing fields (The Emergency Work Relief Program of the FERA, p. 44). 

WPA: The Works Progress Administration built 353 new landing fields and had 600 other projects to add to, reconstruct, or improve existing landing fields. It built 1,192 new airport buildings (e.g., hangars and administrative buildings), and had 3,007 other projects to add to, reconstruct, or improve such buildings. The WPA also added numerous taxi strips, aprons, turning circles, drainage systems, flood lights, boundary lights, seaplane ramps, and airway markers and beacons (Final Report on the WPA Program, p. 132). 

PWA: The Public Works Administration had at least 354 projects involving "Airports and related projects" (America Builds, p. 282). 

CCC: The Civilian Conservation Corps constructed 80 new landing fields and performed maintenance on 88 existing fields (Final Report of the Director of the CCC, p. 105).

NYA: The National Youth Administration built or added to 23 landing fields and had 58 other projects to reconstruct or improve landing fields. It built 80 new airport buildings (including hangars) and had 108 projects to reconstruct or improve such buildings. The NYA also built numerous seaplane landing facilities and placed 2,623 airport and airway markers (Final Report of the National Youth Administration, p. 140).

For a number of reasons, the exact number of New Deal airport projects is probably impossible to determine. For example, FERA completed some CWA projects, the WPA completed some FERA projects, and the WPA and PWA sometimes contributed to the same airport (Reagan National Airport is a good example of the latter).

If we leave out CWA, FERA, and PWA airport work, and just add up WPA, CCC, and NYA projects, it will give us a very conservative estimate of the New Deal's total work product. Thus, we can be confident in reporting that the New Deal created over 400 new airports and landing fields, built over 1,200 new airport buildings (e.g., hangars and administrative buildings), and had many thousands of other projects to improve runways, buildings, and other facilities.