LOOKING BACK

What happened in the highway/bridge industry in 1939 . . .

Through the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration expended 38.3% of all of its funds on roads, streets and highways. Of the over 2 million workers on WPA rolls at the end of 1939, over 900,000 were engaged in street or highway building projects.

What happened in the world in 1939 . . .

• U.S. Department of Agriculture starts first food stamp program in Rochester, N.Y.; • Albert Einstein writes a letter to President Roosevelt regarding the possibility of using uranium to initiate a nuclear chain reaction, the fundamental process behind the atomic bomb;
• Germany invades Poland, occupies Bohemia and Moravia; and
• The big-screen adaptation of Gone with the Wind premieres en route to grossing $192 million.