being planned at McCarren Park. In 1928, the route of the New York City Subway's Crosstown Line was announced, with a tunnel running under the park. That tunnel opened in 1937. Works Progress Administration renovations In 1934, mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia nominated Robert Moses to become commissioner of a unified New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. At the time, the United States was experiencing the Great Depression; immediately after La Guardia won the 1933 election, Moses began to write "a plan for putting 80,000 men to work on 1,700 relief projects". By the time he was in office, several hundred such projects were underway across the city. Moses was especially interested in creating new pools and other bathing facilities, such as those in Jacob Riis Park, Jones Beach, and Orchard Beach. He devised a list of 23 pools around the city, including one at McCarren Park. The pools would be built using funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal agency created as part of the New Deal to combat the Depression's negative effects. Eleven of these pools were to be designed concurrently and open in 1936. Moses, along with architects Aymar Embury II and Gilmore David Clarke, created a common design for these proposed aquatic centers. Each location was to have distinct pools for diving, swimming, and wading; bleachers and viewing areas; and bathhouses with locker rooms that could be used as gymnasiums. The pools were to have several common features, such as a minimum length, underwater lighting, heating, filtration, and low-cost construction materials. To fit the requirement for cheap materials, each building would be built using elements of the Streamline Moderne and Classical architectural styles. The buildings would also be near "comfort stations", additional playgrounds, and spruced-up landscapes. Construction for some of the 11 pools began in October 1934. The previous month, a new playground had been completed at McCarren Park. By mid-1936, ten of the eleven WPA-funded pools were completed and were being opened at a rate of one per week. The McCarren Park Pool was the eighth pool to open, with a ceremony held on July 31, 1936. This was the largest gathering out of the eleven pool openings held that year. The McCarren Play Center was mostly complete at the time of its opening, but all the finishing details had been applied by the 1937 season. Decline and renovations 20th century