Franklin Delano Roosevelt's dedication to U.S. infrastructure, a "new deal for the American people" as he described it, united the United States of America.

Roads were built where there once was only dirt. Bridges connected lands that were once separated. Airports and runways made people airborne. Power lines brought light where there once was only darkness after sunset. And most importantly, the unemployed were once again hard at work. It was the greatest infrastructure project in this country's history, the likes of which we'll never see again.

But eight decades later, America's arteries of transportation, responsible for the lifeblood of our economy and way of life, are crumbling. Years of neglect, political gamesmanship, short-sightedness, economic tightening, and budgetary indecision threaten the accomplishments of a generation of hard-working Americans—from the smallest roads to the largest dams .

"It's all falling into ruin now because we decided we didn't have to maintain it," says Gray Brechin , geographer and founder of the online archive The Living New Deal , "Thank god, they built it all as well as they did."

During the recent presidential campaign, President Donald Trump made a promise to reinvest in America's infrastructure . In fact, the topic was one of the few pieces of actual policy mentioned during his victory speech. But even the trillion dollars he's pledged would only partially make up the gap to get to $3.6 trillion—that's what the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated in 2013 would be needed by 2020 to rebuild America.

As this new administration takes office, it's worth looking back at the last time American infrastructure saved the country.

Wall Street on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929. PhotoQuest Getty Images

Reshaping a Nation

When the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929 , it was, as Nick Taylor wrote in his book American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA, "the greatest crisis in [America's] history short of war."

At the height of the Great Depression, 24 percent of the American workforce was unemployed . Half of the country's banks failed, and the gross national product decreased by nearly half as suicides increased by the largest rate ever recorded . Riots erupted across America , sometimes aimed at immigrants who were accused of taking jobs . Revolt was a real and growing concern.

Considering the sad state of the country, the 1932 presidential election was a predictable landslide, with Franklin Delano Roosevelt routing incumbent Herbert Hoover and his belief in limited government spending during a financial crisis. A Democratic majority would also fill both houses of Congress.

"Very few people today realize how close the country was on the verge of a second civil war...The New Deal was largely designed to make sure that didn't happen."

On Inauguration Day, March 4, 1933, FDR told the nation that they had "nothing to fear but fear itself. " Then, reportedly within hours , he embarked on what is considered the greatest first 100 days (well, actually 105) in American presidential history . He pushed 15 major bills through the Democratic-held Congress, among them was the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the Public Works Administration (PWA), and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which were all designed to get people back to work by building federally funded infrastructure projects. As President Roosevelt had promised on the campaign trail, it was a new deal for the America and its citizens.

"Very few people today realize how close the country was on the verge of a second civil war or a revolution in 1933," says Brechlin, "The New Deal was largely designed to make sure that didn't happen."

FDR's New Deal programs were based on a inherently progressive belief system—that the government had an obligation to its citizens. "You needed to give people jobs," historian and author Nick Taylor told Popular Mechanics. "Ones that not only provided income but dignity of work."

So in Roosevelt's America, digging a drainage ditch was not just a job, but the workers' contribution to making their community, and in turn the country, a better place. Building a school wasn't just a way to make an income, but investing in the next generation. Damming the local river wasn't only improving one's lot in life, but also providing electricity to help one's neighbors. "(Roosevelt) had a comprehensive moral vision to improve the United States," says Brechin, "and to save democracy."

WPA workers rebuilding Morris Canal. MPI Getty Images

A Workforce of Millions

The establishment of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) by presidential act in 1935 was the crowning jewel of the New Deal. Led by the ambitious and pragmatic Harry Hopkins, the WPA's original intention was to be a jobs program, meant to put millions of people back to work. But with Hopkins at the helm and FDR's support, the WPA became much more.

Unlike the majority of PWA and CCC proposals, all WPA projects were requests from local and state governments and had to be submitted for approval. The deal was that the federal government would pick up a big chunk of the project's tab, provided it was of public interest and employed the maximum amount of people. As archivist Bill Creech explains, "The basic idea [was] to use local materials and as much of the out-of-work local workforce as possible."

This initially led to small, localized tasks like roads, bridges, schools, community parks, and drainage ditches. But Hopkins believed that the WPA could do more with a workforce that reached nearly 3.2 million by 1938 . Oregon's Timberline Lodge , the Riverwalk in San Antonio, and New York's LaGuardia Airport are just a few of the iconic and soaring projects that have come to best exemplify the efforts of the WPA.

The overall numbers are staggering. According to statistics compiled in American-Made, the agency covered the U.S. with 650,000 miles of road, built 78,000 bridges, erected 125,000 civilian and military buildings, and constructed or improved 800 airports. More than infrastructure, the laborers of the WPA worked in schools, serving up 900 million hot lunches to hungry children and operated 1,500 nurseries.

WPA posters promoting the arts. Getty Images

They also provided arts and culture, putting on 225,000 concerts, plus thousands of plays, circuses, and puppet shows. They produced nearly half a million works of art, including ones painted by Jackson Pollock . The WPA's Federal Writers' Project wrote 276 full-length books, featuring pieces from soon-to-be famous writers John Steinbeck and May Swenson .

"[The WPA] brought the American infrastructure into the 20th century," says Taylor.

A 21st Century Dilemma

More than 80 years later, that blossoming of American potential is in decay.

To put it plainly, the U.S. failed to adjust investment in infrastructure with the country's growing population. In 1933, the U.S. population was 125.6 million. Today, that number stands at 324.3 million and growing. That means more cars, more roads, and more bridges. But infrastructure hasn't seen a serious commitment of resources for at least 60 years, dating back to Eisenhower's National Interstate and Defense Highway Act of 1956 .

Stories about infrastructure always talk about how it's not a "sexy" way to spend taxpayer money. That's surely one factor that contributes to the disconnect between its important to America and the amount we're willing to spend on it. According to the ASCE, the No. 1 problem is surface transportation—in other words, roads, bridges and highways . Millions drive them every day to and from work, and the ASCE says that subpar roads cost the American economy more than $100 billion in wasted fuel and time every year. Despite these hefty numbers, funding on the local, state, and federal levels are too often delayed or forever in limbo.

The ASCE's Brian Pallasch cites Virginia's recent battles to widen its interstates as the perfect example. It took nearly a decade, several governors, and a near-crisis for any solutions to finally be enacted. The federal government shoulders much of the blame as well, including December's federal budget temporary spending bill that stretches until April. This temporary bill freezes the planned increase for surface transportation funding at last year's levels and limits the fed's ability to partner with localities on projects. "(States) are not going to commit to building a $100 million bridge if there's no certainty that the federal partner is going to be there," says Pallasch, "You can't plan a bridge in three-month increments. That's not how that works."

One of ASCE's major recommendations for funding is to raise the fuel tax from its 1993 level of 18.4 cents —of which 18.3 cents goes into the Highway Trust Fund . Despite inflation, gas price increases, and the drop in purchasing power, the fuel tax has stayed the same for nearly a quarter of a century when President Bill Clinton signed the hike into law .

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The Roads and Bridges Ahead

During the campaign, Trump spoke of a one trillion dollar, 10-year infrastructure plan that would rely heavily on the private sector . It was met with mixed responses , but from the ASCE's point of view, "it's a significant and credible start to addressing the problem," says Pallasch. He explains that there is certainly a role for the private sector in a partnership between federal, state, and local governments in financing the improvements to America's infrastructure. Because many of these projects would be difficult to monetize, he's skeptical that private companies will be able to fix everything.

It's mostly impossible to recreate a New Deal for a new century. America was a much, much different place in 1933. It was significantly more rural , there were far fewer people, and unemployment was at record highs. It was also poorer , less hopeful, and a much larger need to create new infrastructure rather rebuilding what already existed.