President Barack Obama has called for the creation of a National Infrastructure Bank. The intention: To create a structure so public works projects could be, according to the President while campaigning last year, “determined not by politics, but by what will maximize our safety and homeland security; what will keep our environment clean and our economy strong.” Still, it is unclear how a National Infrastructure Bank would function -- or even be established.

Blueprint America looks at the possibility of the Bank -- both the design and implementation of -- in interviews with Felix Rohatyn, author of Bold Endeavors: How our government built America, and why it must rebuild now, and Stan Hazelroth, Executive Director of the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank. Additionally, a breakdown of the progress of the National Infrastructure Bank so far.

Blueprint America: Public Works is an effort by 18 public television stations across the country that concentrates on the state of their local infrastructure. Communities -- big and small, urban and rural -- are, for the first time, collectively rethinking what it takes to make a place livable. PBS stations are producing radio and television segments, hosting discussions between policy makers and their communities, and offering further content online, all as a part of Blueprint America.

The Civilian Conservation Corps was the first and most popular New Deal program. Millions of young men who could not find work signed up to be part of Roosevelt's "forest army." They planted trees, fought forest fires, and built trails and buildings we still use today.

The WPA was one of Roosevelt's most controversial programs. It put millions of people to work doing things like painting murals, sewing clothes, running nursery schools and serving school lunches. But most WPA workers built things. Their legacy is all around us.

The Public Works Administration left an enormous legacy of public works. PWA workers built projects in all but three counties in the United States, but many of the structures they left behind have no plaque mentioning the PWA. Americans use these structures every day without realizing where they came from.

Blueprint Nebraska on Nebraska Educational Television - as a part of Blueprint America - speaks to Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman and Sen. Ben Nelson about the federal stimulus package and how the state might use its share. Also, radio reports on the state of Nebraska's infrastructure.

Coming to you in Technicolor, a classic local television commercial from 1973 showing the rapid population growth in Oregon. Sponsored by the group "Keep Oregon Livable," the ant filled-warning was part of a larger movement that brought planning to the forefront of politics statewide in the era.

It is fairly understood that America’s transportation infrastructure is in crisis. In 2008, the Federal Highway Trust Fund – the primary source of federal transportation funding –- nearly went bankrupt. And, it is about to again. Its main source of revenue –- the federal gas tax -- has not been raised since 1993 and the cost of maintaining and upgrading the nation’s roads and bridges increased 50 percent in the last ten years.

As Denver's growth rate has consistently outpaced the national rate every decade since the 1930s, its people have spread out across the region similar to Phoenix, Arizona, or Houston, Texas. Still, its mass transit system is expanding and, as a result, growth may be better managed in the future.