"It would be the 'Biggest Thing on Earth', the salvation of the common man, a dam and irrigation project would make the desert bloom, a source of cheap power that would boost an entire region of the country." This was Franklin D. Roosevelt's opinion on the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam. When the stock market stock market crashed in 1929, Roosevelt was searching for a project that would employ large numbers of workers. Not only did the dam project help us out of the great depression, it also helped us win World War Two. Vice Presidential candidate Earl Warren once remarked in 1948: "Probably Hitler would have beaten us in atom bomb development if it had not been for the hydroelectric development of the Columbia, making possible the big Hanford project which brought forth the bomb" (www.nwcouncil.org). The dam provided companies, like Boeing, to have enough power to build planes for the war. The Grand Coulee Dam still provides the Pacific Northwest with lots of power. The Dam was everything that Roosevelt thought it would be (www.pbs.org). .
Rufus Woods, was one of the people that had the idea of building the Grand Coulee Dam. Woods once wrote, "Such a power if developed would operate railroads, factories, mines, irrigation pumps, furnish heat and light in such a measure that all in all would be the most unique, the most interesting, and the most remarkable development of both irrigation and power in this age of industrial and scientific miracles (www.washington.edu). Woods knew that the dam would help the very bad economy. He knew that many people would be able to have a job and they really needed one. The economy became much better after the Grand Coulee Dam was built. The dam allowed people to make money that was desperately needed. The workers on the dam made a $1.20 which was excellent wages during the great depression (www.nwcouncil.org). The dam also helped with the irrigation of many farms.
