The way U.S. geographical patterns have developed in the period since World War II has been influenced greatly by technological changes over the same period. This was true in the era before the war as well, and the war itself brought a number of changes as war production altered manufacturing patterns. After the war, though, returning G.I.s and their families faced a changing landscape, with special efforts being undertaken to make it possible for more families to own a home, at least one car, and other new technological marvels. Business patterns also changed as there were new products to be produced and sold. The most important changes were in the areas of transportation and communication, which enabled changes in residential patterns that contributed to the growth of the suburb and in the long term to the decay of the central cities.
The building of the highway system actually began in earnest the 1920s and continued apace during the years of the Great Depression. The New Deal had an influence beyond the problems connected with the manufacture of motor vehicles. One of the interesting responses to the depression can be seen in the fact that there was more rather than less activity in highway construction than there had been in the prosperous 1920s. The reason was that road-building was an obvious and acceptable method of using public funds to combat unemployment. The Civilian Conservation Corps built access and fire roads to remote areas; the Public Works Administration financed highway construction and other substantial projects such as new bridges and the elimination of grade crossings; and the Works Progress Administration worked extensively in local road improvement. The Tennessee Valley Authority was another agency that engaged in a good deal of highway building and relocation in its area. At the same time, the regular federal aid program under the Highway Act of 1921 continued, temporarily reduced early in the dec...