The Age of Grand Undertakings

In September, 1929, the U.S. Stock market crashed. By 1932, as the depression set in, US industrial production had fallen nearly fifty percent, wholesale prices had fallen by a third, foreign trade was down by seventy percent and unemployment was up more than 600 percent.

In New York City, the corporation planning to build the world's tallest building continued with their plans and completed the building in 1931, a year and a half after construction began. Construction began on the largest reclamation project in the west, the Boulder Dam (later renamed Hoover dam) in 1931, with completion in 1936.Further west, in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District, authorized by an act of the California legislature, was incorporated in 1928 to design, construct, and finance the Golden Gate Bridge. After the crash, unable to raise construction funds, the District lobbied for a $30 million bond issue. The bonds were approved in 1930. Bank of America bought the entire issue in order to help the local economy.

Construction began January 5, 1933. It was finished by April 1937, $1.3 million under budget.

Further north, work began on the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia river in 1931. Later expanded in design, the project was completed in 1942 and provided hydroelectric power for wartime industries in the Pacific Northwest.

In 1934, the US Army Air Corps put out a bid for long range bombers. Less than a year later the first prototype B-17, which became the backbone of strategic air operations in World War II made its first flight.

About the same time, Congress authorized a new battleship. The keel of USS North Carolina was laid October 27, 1937. The ship was launched June 13, 1940 and put in commission April 9, 1941. Nine more fast battleships came behind her and served in World War II.

These were all grand undertakings. They were by no means the only grand undertakings in these years. In my native state of Oklahoma, the longest multiple arch dam was built on the Grand River to provide flood control and hydroelectric power.

Every one of these designs was created on paper by design engineers who did calculations by hand and with slide rules, made copies of detailed drawings using the blueprint process. Not a single digital computer was used, because none existed.

Where are our visionaries of today? All we hear is, "oh, we can't afford anything like that!"

Are we led by a generation of fraidy cats and wimps?