The Great Depression hit San Francisco as it did the rest of the country. To alleviate some of the sting, the federal government created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) program in the late 1930s to provide work for artists during lean years. It not only supplied local artists with funds to create public murals, many of which still exist today and can be viewed at Coit Tower and Golden Gate Park's Beach Chalet, it also documented San Franciscan culture and landscape as well as provided citizens with at least a few pictures that were prettier than the current state of affairs.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, mobilized the U.S. into a massive war machine, with many shipyards strategically positioned along the Pacific Coast, including San Francisco's. Within less than a year, several shipyards were producing up to one new warship per day, employing hundreds of thousands of people working around the clock. Workers flooded the city from virtually everywhere, forcing an enormous boom in housing.
After the hostilities ended, many soldiers remembered San Francisco as the site of their finest hours and returned to live there permanently. The economic prosperity of the postwar years enabled massive enlargements of the city, including freeways, housing developments, a booming financial district, and pockets of counterculture enthusiasts, such as the beatniks, gays, and hippies.
