The PWA, run by FDR's close ally Harold Ickes, became, with its "multiplier-effect" and first two-year budget of $3.3 billion, the driving force of America's biggest construction effort up to that date. For every worker on a PWA project, almost two additional workers were employed elsewhere. The PWA carried out the electrification of rural America, the building of canals, tunnels, bridges, highways, streets, sewage systems, and housing areas, as well as hospitals, schools, and universities.
