New Deal Legacy

What was the lasting legacy of the New Deal?

In many ways, the New Deal signified a new start for Americans, and it was as if everything had been improved in some way, and many new things were established to help everyone gain back what they had lost in the Great Depression. The New Deal had begun in the time of the Depression, which was filled with tons of despair and misery. The new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, realized that things needed to change. In the movie we watched, "The Century - The Depression", many people reflected on what everything was like at the time. Some had said that "the land itself was blowing away", as if they had literally lost everything, including the land. With the New Deal, many new bridges were created, and old ones were repaired in order to ensure that transportation over them was reliable. For example, the construction of the Triborough Bridge started in 1929, the same year of the stock market crash, and it linked the Bronx, Manhattan to Queens. This saved Americans a lot of travel time. Mrs. Roosevelt received many letters from children asking for clothing, money, and other forms of assistance. Although Mrs. Roosevelt did not respond directly to any of the children, she helped them in other ways. She worked to establish government programs for young people as part of the New Deal. The National Youth Administration (NYA) and the youth-oriented programs of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) are two examples. The NYA gave more than 2 million high school and college students grants in exchange for work, and it also found work for 2.5 million young people who were not enrolled in school. This was extremely beneficial to the youths of America, because they were given a new role in the Depression and could help provide for their families and themselves. Overall, the New Deal made a huge impact on the lives of millions of Americans who had suffered through the Great Depression, and the lasting legacy of it will never be forgotten. Although many people would have disagreed at the time, I think that FDR made an outstanding change with what he started, and he did more than Hoover ever would have thought of doing.