Grand Coulee Dam (American Experience)

Grand Coulee Dam (American Experience)

83 mins | Documentary, History | April 18, 2017

During the darkest days of the Depression when construction was started on Grand Coulee Dam, everything about it was described in superlatives. It would be the "Biggest Thing on Earth," the salvation of the common man, a dam and irrigation project that would make the desert bloom, a source of cheap power that would boost an entire region of the country. Of the many public works projects of the New Deal, Grand Coulee Dam loomed largest in America's imagination, promising to fulfill President Franklin Roosevelt's vision for a "planned promised land" where hard-working farm families would finally be free from the drought and dislocation caused by the elements.

Grand Coulee Dam (American Experience)

83 mins | Documentary, History | April 18, 2017

Grand Coulee Dam (American Experience)
During the darkest days of the Depression when construction was started on Grand Coulee Dam, everything about it was described in superlatives. It would be the "Biggest Thing on Earth," the salvation of the common man, a dam and irrigation project that would make the desert bloom, a source of cheap power that would boost an entire region of the country. Of the many public works projects of the New Deal, Grand Coulee Dam loomed largest in America's imagination, promising to fulfill President Franklin Roosevelt's vision for a "planned promised land" where hard-working farm families would finally be free from the drought and dislocation caused by the elements.
Producers WGBH Boston, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS American Experience
Original title Grand Coulee Dam (American Experience)
Directors Stephen Ives
Writers Rob Rapley

Cast

Michael Murphy

as Narrator