Triumphrat

barneys

I am currently reading The Duma Key by Stephen King. In it he talks about a drawbridge between two keys. He says it was built in the WPA Era, what and when was this? I am a great Stephen King fan but sometimes I don't know the American names and phrases. I'm sure it's the same when you guys from across the pond read books by a Brit author! TIA

__________________
I may be addicted to brake fluid, but I can stop at any time

Silverado57

The Works Progress Administration (renamed in 1939 the Work Projects Administration; WPA) was the largest New Deal agency, employing millions of people and affecting most every locality in the United States, especially rural and western mountain populations. It was created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidential order, and funded by Congress with passage of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 on April 8, 1935. (The legislation had passed in the House by a margin of 329 to 78, but got bogged down in the Senate.)

More here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_P...Administration

__________________
Kevin
Luceo Non Uro
NJ USA

TRIIICK

http://pd.ilt.columbia.edu/liberty/nla/nla_u1pt1.htm
http://www.sarasotafl.org/ They don't tell you about all the snakes waiting for you along the trail..

Berniebikes

The WPA era was during the great depression, created in 1935 by Roosevelt and continued by President Hoover. It was a governmental agency to put people to work on needed public construction projects and in turn stimulating the economy by the money being spent and wages being paid. Many wonderful public facilities in the U. S. owe their existence or at least their beginnings to the WPA.

koifarm

Now that I think about it, WPA wouldn't be a bad thing to bring back to a present day world.
I've been to many state parks that were built by the WPA and they are all beautiful. Considering most were built from 35 on up and were all wood, little of which was pressure treated, but mostly preserved by using woods rich in sap like southern pine.
The point is that the majority of these parks and infrastructure are in need of replacement or repair wouldn't it seem a good thing to bring back the WPA?

__________________
Sitting on a cornflake waiting for the van to come!

barneys

Thanks for you replies guys. Very interesting period of history. Perhaps it's something all nations should consider in the current economic downturn.
Thanks TRIIICK for Sarasota link,looks a great place to visit,definitely a change from most peoples idea of Florida.

__________________
I may be addicted to brake fluid, but I can stop at any time

HiDesert

Opinions are divided over whether the WPA (which was often referred to as the "We Poke Along" because of the usual rate of progress) really helped shorten the depression, or extended it. Government programs like that have to be paid for with taxes, which slow down the whole economy.

The facilities they built are historical and cultural treasures, but I hope we won't be resorting to that again.

__________________
I won't stop riding because you tell me about someone who died in an accident, just as I won't stop eating because someone died of e.coli.

HiDesert's ride photos

brolane

There was also the CCC (Civilian Construction Corps), but these projects did not end the depression. The industrial boom caused by World War II, and the number of men and women coming back after the war with a little money and a lot of ambition are generally the reasons for the healthy economy.

Today, however, something like the WPA and CCC would not be an alternative. It would require some third-generation welfare families living in public housing to get off their duffs and go to work. There wold be an uprising.

__________________
Matter can neither be created or destroyed, but it can be lost.

kraftno

Some of Obama's proposals are not far off from the basic WPA notion of government spending on infrastructure to jump start the economy and keep the jobless rate from sinking too low. HiDesert is right that there's not full agreement on whether WPA spending is actually what did the trick (could there ever be full agreement looking back on the success of an economic strategy when there are soooo many variables in the formula?). And Obama, at this point anyway, is just talking about transportation infrastructure (road building, bridge repair, that sort of thing), while the WPA went MUCH further, even funding public arts projects and other cultural ventures. The next administration (at least with the appointments he's made so far) will be far too moderate, and the country in general is far too conservative, to make such wide ranging government spending palatable. And that's probably just as well. The deficit spending already on the table is scary enough as it is.

Ned

__________________
Ned
Black Bonnie
DC

TRIIICK

Casey Key is in Sarasota , i havn't read the book but it said Duma Key ?? was connected to Casey Key.