1.6 Bil in 1969 dollars translates to 13.6 Bil in 2024 dollars.
Oftentimes I hear complaints that today's projects cost too much, or I come across ballot measures where the other side is always like "something something we have no moneys" such as Prop 4 in California [1]. Sometimes reading about the past puts the present in perspective.
[1] - https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_4,_Parks,_Env...
This is in the 1960s too, so before the anti-smoking movement had any real wins. In retrospect, it’s crazy that smoking was ever as widespread as it was in buildings, looking at its ventilation impacts. Perhaps an underrated driver for why smoking bans succeeded could be the increasing requirements of mechanical ventilation for modern buildings and vehicles, making the monetary benefits of stopping smoking more immediately compelling for infrastructure managers.
I think it’s also underrated that smoking bans wouldn’t have made much sense until burning of wood and coal to heat buildings stopped - many wood and coal fireplaces and furnaces let out far more secondhand smoke into the building interior and exterior than tobacco smoking could ever hope to match.
OG.
In the first phase of the project. They definitely planned with them in mind: