Americans spent more than a $1 billion each year on the construction and maintenance of highways, and at least another $400 million annually for city streets. But the automotive industry affected construction far more than that. The automobile had been central to the urbanization of the country in the 1920's because so many other industries relied upon it. With urbanization came the need to build many more apartment buildings, factories, offices, and stores. From 1919 to 1928 the construction industry grew by around $5 billion dollars, nearly 50%. All of these factors played an enormous role in the miscalculation of projected earnings for 1929. All the revenue generated throughout the decade lead consumers and economists alike to believe that there would be great cause for further increase throughout the next fiscal year. But, because this wasn’t so, and not many of the companies had turned a profit in the last quarter of 1929, almost all stocks plummeted to zero causing billions of dollars to disappear from flow within the American public....
