At the height of the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt put America to work. In 1935, when 1 in 5 Americans were unemployed, Washington launched the Works Progress Administration, still the largest public works initiative in the country’s history. Its initial appropriation was $4.9 billion (about $90 billion in today’s dollars), and within three years, it had provided jobs to 3 million Americans.

The WPA’s scope still boggles the mind. Per Smithsonian Magazine, the project “built, improved or renovated 39,370 schools; 2,550 hospitals; 1,074 libraries; 2,700 firehouses; 15,100 auditoriums, gymnasiums and recreational buildings; 1,050 airports, 500 water treatment plants,