Ballpark Estimate: $288 Billion (1940 dollars) In terms of losses in human lives and material resources, World War II was undeniably the most destructive military conflict to date. It was a global-military conflict that saw 61 countries taking part in a war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The major participants were the Allied powers, specifically…
Ballpark Estimate: $41 million in 1931 ($558 million in 2007 dollars) Ordinarily, one would not expect to find enormous construction projects taking place during the years of the Great Depression when many banks had closed, scores of companies had gone bankrupt, and millions of people were out of work. Yet, there were indeed such ventures…
Ballpark Estimate: 31 cents/gallon A gallon of (leaded) gas in the United States in 1960 cost only 31 cents! That sounds like an incredible bargain until you factor in inflation. 31 cents in 1960 is equivalent to $2.07 in the year 2007. The national average cost of a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline in 2007 was…
Ballpark Estimate: $850. The first production Ford Model T was built in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan. The Model T had a 2.9 liter four-cylinder engine that produced 20 horsepower (HP) and had a top speed of 45 mph. It cost $850. That’s about $17,000 in 2007 inflation-adjusted dollars, which is about the same price of a…
Ballpark Estimate: $114 billion (1956-1991 dollars); $500 billion (2008 dollars) Holding the distinction of being the largest in the world, the Interstate Highway System is a coast to coast network of state-owned roads. It is a system of high-speed highways that serves every major city in the United States for the transportation of products and goods, personal…
Ballpark Estimate: $67 Billion (1953 dollars); $535 billion (2008 dollars) It was December 1945. With the surrender of Japan some four months earlier World War II was finally over and, as with all wars, the victors assembled to negotiate the rules for divvying up their winnings. One such agreement, reached at the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers,…
Ballpark Estimate: $37 Million Dollars + Interest The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was built over a four and a half year period between 1933 and 1937. It is the second largest suspension bridge in the United States. The bridge cost $37 million, but was funded by municipal bonds that cost an additional $39 million…
Ballpark Estimate: $20.67 per ounce Over 100 years ago, the price of gold sat at a relatively stable price of $20.67 per ounce on the open market. On November 15, 2007, the price for an ounce of gold was $793.30. It’s important to compare apples with apples, so it’s necessary to know that the purchasing power…
Ballpark Estimate: $10.25/Adult, $9.25/Child Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom opened on October 1, 1971. The admission price for a single day pass was $3.50 for an adult (age 18+) ticket and $1.00 for a child. This was just to get in the gates — no rides were included. The ticket price structure for the actual rides…
Ballpark Estimate: $50 million in 1931 dollars; $690 million in 2008 dollars For years, the low-lying plains of the West, especially the areas around Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico, suffered from a severe lack of water for the residence, their animals, and for irrigating their farmlands. In fact, it was the hottest, driest region in…
Ballpark Estimate: $7 Billion (1860 dollars); $75 Billion (2008 dollars) In historical terms, the American Civil War was undoubtedly the most significant single event in the formation of a young, divided, and struggling nation. And like all wars there was a cost both in economic losses and in human suffering. Unlike other wars, however, it was particularly…
Ballpark Estimate: 8 Million Francs (US$1.5 Million in 1890 dollars, US$34 Million in 2007 dollars). At 1,063 feet, including the antenna, the Eiffel Tower is the tallest structure in Paris and one of the most recognized tourist attractions on the globe. As the winning entry in a design competition, construction began in 1887 taking as many as…
Ballpark Estimate: $15 Million in 1883; $320 Million in 2007 dollars As the population grew in New York City during the 1830s there was always loose talk of relieving the overcrowded conditions there by building a bridge across the East River to Brooklyn. Building the bridge, the proponents argued, would reduce the congestion in New York City…
Ballpark Estimate: $639 Million (1914 dollars); $14.3 Billion (2007 dollars). Until 1914 the only way to transport goods by ship from New York City to San Francisco was along a circuitous 12,000 mile route around the tip of South America. For many forward-looking leaders in the U.S., cutting a canal across the Panama Isthmus made a lot…
Ballpark Estimate: $240 Million (1957 dollars); $1.9 Billion (2007 dollars) Originally called the Midtown Hudson Tunnel, the Lincoln Tunnel is actually the world’s first three-tube underwater vehicular tunnel system. The three so-called “tubes” are known as the North, Center, and South Tunnels, each 21.5 feet wide and designed with two traffic lanes apiece. The tunnels cross the…