WPA workers remove bricks near the intersection of Second and Main streets after streetcar tracks were taken out in 1939. Evansville’s transit system had begun in 1867 when tracks were laid on Main Street, and the first electric car appeared in 1892. New and more efficient motor buses were now replacing the streetcars, marking a “new era†in local transportation, as a newspaper boasted. The WPA (Works Progress Administration) was one of several federal agencies created during the Depression to provide training and jobs for unemployed people. In Evansville, many projects built and improved roads and streets, repaired sidewalks, helped to develop Burdette Park and Mesker Zoo, as well as provided recreational opportunities.
