The Works Progress Administration or WPA created more than eight million jobs from 1935 to 1943, for a great many unskilled workers and professionals. The WPA constructed 850 airports, built or repaired 650,000 miles of America’s roads, sewed more than 300 million articles of clothing for the needy, and erected 110,000 libraries, schools and hospitals. Artists, authors, and musicians found work in the WPA too, painting murals on public buildings, writing performing, and composing.