7. The Tennessee Valley Authority brought electrification to millions
During the Great Depression, the region of the American Southeast known as the Tennessee Valley was devastated by lack of employment and electricity. Most Americans purchased their electricity from privately owned companies, which controlled not only where it was distributed, but how much their customers were charged. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, industrialists including Henry Ford proposed building a dam near Muscle Shoals in Alabama, and in response liberals in Congress passed the Muscle Shoals Bill, authorizing the federal government to build a dam at the site and electrify the region. President Hoover vetoed the bill.
When FDR entered the presidency the Muscle Shoals bill was adapted as part of the New Deal, which created the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The TVA not only provided electricity to a wide area of the economically crippled region, it brought in experts to develop better fertilizers, improved crop yields, offered employment in many fields, and developed new methods of conservation of forests and waterways. In its first eleven years of existence alone, the TVA built 16 dams, distributing hydroelectric power to millions, improving their lives and opportunities for work and education.