Whiteface Castle and the Whiteface Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway were Depression Era public works projects similar to the New Deal Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects that followed. Construction on the toll road began in 1929, after passage of a necessary amendment to the state constitution, with a groundbreaking ceremony featuring then-New York State Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. Eventually costing 1.2 million dollars and ending within 300 vertical feet (90 m) of the summit the roadway is 5 miles long and features an impressively steep 8% average grade. Officially opened July 20, 1935 in a ceremony featuring Roosevelt, by then President, the highway was dedicated to veterans of the Great War.

The Castle:

Whiteface Castle, built with granite excavated during the road construction, dominates the summit area. From the adjacent parking lot there are two routes to the summit proper. The first route is the Stairway Ridge Trail, a footpath with handrails and intermittent cement and stone steps approximately 0.2 mile (120 m) long. The second is a 424-foot (129 m) long tunnel into the core of the mountain. At the end of the tunnel is an elevator, which rises 276 feet (84 m, or approximately 27 stories) to the summit.

source: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteface_Mountain" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteface_Mountain</a>

The U.S. Weather Service has a post inside the castle on top of the mountain.

I think there are many such opportunities to put people to work through such public works projects like those we employed to fight the Great Depression - like the work at Whiteface.