Constuction Of The Alaska Highway (1944)

when the jabs bombed pearl harbor they upset our thinking about a great many things including alaska most people if they thought of alaska at all thought of it as a cold rugged wasteland of little value except for its gold fur and fisheries now suddenly it seemed to have considerable additional value both to us and to the japanese and its strategic position was not comforting from alaska the aleutian islands stretched out invitingly toward a shrewd and daring enemy the great japanese air and naval base at paramushiro was only 750 miles from our two at two was only 1200 miles from the mainland of alaska and jackson alaska would be a direct threat to the west coast of america and also to the interior alaska's long and broken coastline was weakly defended our bases were few and far between and our only means of supplying them was by sea or by air there was no overland connection across the wilderness of northwestern canada not even a trail if our shipping lanes could be interrupted alaska might fall the situation called for immediate action the canadian government had already carved out a series of five airports between edmonton alberta and white horse yukon territory and there were other fields in alaska between the yukon border and fairbanks with canada's consent the united states war department decided to build a military highway from rails and at dawson creek british columbia to fairbanks alaska to link up and supply these airfields and to provide emergency access to alaska for troops and materiel this highway would extend roughly 1500 miles about the distance from washington to denver the frontier town of dawson creek saw the arrival of the first army engineer troops in march 1942 here they set up a camp enlisted men were trained in the special problems of maintenance and operation of tractors in the north their stiff workouts in sub-zero weather over the surrounding hills soon produced skilled cat skinners before the arrival of additional engineer troops these first troops moved out over a trail broken by the canadian department of transport to fort nelson where they established a base camp and began working northwest other regiments entered the yukon through skagway and established a base at whitehorse they began working both northwest and southeast still other regiments entered alaska at valdez and moved up to a point in the interior from here they began working toward fairbanks and toward the yukon border in all there were seven engineer regiments or about ten thousand men their immediate job was to break through a pioneer road a road without thrills but a road which could be used to supply the airfields and to construct a permanent road later all spring and summer the troops hacked cut and gouged their way through the wilderness they were colored as well as white troops both did their full share they cut around mountainsides and across valleys they corduroyed and filled over swampy ground they slithered in the mud of thawing ground frost they built culverts over brooks and small streams they built bridges over mountain torrents and full-fledged rivers finally on the 20th of november 1942 eight months after the first troops plunged into the northern bush the pioneer road from dawson creek to fairbanks was officially opened the freight rolled through and the truck drivers were surprised to find that the road was much better than they expected in fact considering its length more than 1500 miles the difficulties of terrain and climate and the remarkably short time of construction it was one of the wonders of the modern world fairbanks the northern terminus founded 40 years ago as a gold mining camp was already a modern little american city in the heart of the alaskan wilderness of course the highway was still largely a winter road usable in some sections only when the ground was frozen its bridges were temporary and many of them would be washed out by the ice and floods in the spring even during the winter bridges over active streams were sometimes covered by ice and logs had to be laid across them and cemented in place by water to keep the trucks from breaking through and there were other hazards active springs built up mounds of ice that had to be fought constantly when culver's plugged up and ice mushroomed over the road it had to be cleared even at 40 below or a truck might stall in a rut or ditch where ice was forming and while the driver went for help it would be frozen fast at many points the grades were too steep especially when they became icy sanding machines worked constantly but it was impossible to keep the roads safe at all times and places even on the best sections if drivers relax for a moment they might find themselves in a ditch tow cars work the clock round patrolling up and down the highway dragging trucks out of trouble whenever they found them control stations established at 100 mile intervals were manned by quartermaster troops who checked over and refueled each truck as it came through troops had to repair and service their equipment as best they could but repair facilities were badly over taxed both spare parts and mechanics were scarce many trucks were deadlined for weeks at a time at the start troops working on the highway had only tents for living quarters by the beginning of 1943 however most of them were living in quonset huts sometimes for added warmth they were banked with sawdust they came in sections and could be erected in a few hours following closely behind the soldiers who built the pioneer road came civilian contractors to turn it into a permanent all-weather road they established their own camps and repair facilities at vantage points along the route there were public roads administration surveyors to relocate and improve the alignment of the road there were skilled crews with power shovels to widen the road and cut down graves there were crews with trucks to haul gravel from the borough pits which were opened all up and down the highway there were dirt moving machines as well as trucks to build up the road there were bulldozers to spread and pack the gravel and dozers to dig drainages there were motor graders to smooth the surface there were skilled structural workers and carpenters to build permanent bridges replacing the temporary ones of the engineers um uh as ice formed in lily pads on the rivers strange new patterns and steel rose against the cold northern sky there were telephone crews to put in a line stretching the entire length of the highway the signal core directed the work and its men did the pioneering all this activity demanded a constant flow of supplies both up the highway and by sea the japs although they had been entrenched in the illusion since june of 1942 were unable to interfere with coastwise shipping to alaska so it was possible to increase the volume of supplies moving in through skagway rainy windswept skagway was built up as the gateway to the fabulous klondike during the gold rush of 97 and 98 when gamblers and desperados like sophie smith held sway then it became a ghost town surviving only as a small port and railroad terminal attracting a few hundred tourists each summer suddenly it came to life again as a transfer point for troops and supplies for the alaska highway port facilities were improved and enlarged the fork was extended now freighters coming up the inside passage from prince rupert in british columbia could be unloaded quickly and easily barges could be beached and unloaded at low tide from skagway supplies moved across the mountains on the narrow gauge white pass and yukon railway this winding railway is one of the steepest in the world it follows closely the famous trail of 98 on which many a man lost his life climbing its icy ledges on his way to the klondike to make sure the railway would continue to operate during the emergency the army leased it and installed a railroad operating battalion to run it all winter long in spite of cold and snow and treacherous rock slides these trainmen in uniform kept supplies and equipment rolling steadily 110 miles into whitehorse as an example of the railroad troops devotion to duty one engineer was awarded the soldiers medal for risking his life to save a train from destruction white horse at the head of navigation on the yukon river 40 years ago in its gold rush heyday boasted a population of 20 000 people which later dwindled to a few hundred now it was reawakening to the unfamiliar voices of soldiers and truck drivers and cat skinners on through the spring and summer the road building continues by now there were 81 contractors and about 14 000 men scattered along the highway crews worked in two shifts of sometimes 10 and sometimes 11 hours each specifications call for a 26 foot road bed with 20 to 22 feet of surfacing with gravel or crust stone and in addition to the highway itself an important supplement was being built the haynes cut-off running from haynes in the alaska panhandle 160 miles north to a point on the highway 95 miles west of whitehorse the cut-off was designed to relieve the strain on the white pass and yukon railway it was begun in the spring of 1943 with engineered troops pioneering the road south from the alaska highway at the same time civilian contractors started north from chilcoot barracks an early military post which lay just outside the village of hayes for the first 42 miles an old motor road was improved widened and in places relocated on its way to the alaska yukon border this road wound through spruce and poplar forests over cold mountain streams and through a sleepy indian village from the border northward the route followed an old pack trail here the contractor started from scratch clearing timber grading and surfacing on reaching the pioneer road of the engineers the civilian crews continued along it improving and widening it all the way to the main highway when the hanes cutoff was finished in the fall of 1943 the alaska highway had an all-weather connection with tidewater as the highway and the cut-off were nearing completion so were the emergency flight strips being built by the canadian department of transport and the united states army engineers so these strips were spaced between airports to provide a safe landing surface for pilots who suddenly ran into trouble in addition the engineers were improving the airports themselves extra hangers were built new runways and aprons were added these airports were enlarged and the flight strips were built not only to speed american planes into alaska but also to service red star fighters and bombers being ferried on blend lease direct to russia at the same time most of the 86 major bridges on the highway were being finished the largest of these was the peace river bridge spanning one of the great rivers of the north near the southern end of the highway the bridge is 2275 feet long with two suspension towers reaching 200 feet high and a concrete deck 24 feet wide the bridge was officially opened in august 1943 soldiers and construction workers came from various sections of the highway there were officers and officials representing both the united states and canada there were speeches there was a ribbon to be cut but the crowd didn't need to be told of the importance of the occasion the towering bridge itself was ample evidence of the new day dawning in the north now the lower half of the highway was finished in all seasons trucks from dawson creek could travel straight through to whitehorse at intervals of about 100 miles there were relay stations where the trucks were checked over and refueled in the pioneering days most of the fuel used on the highway was trucked from railhead at dawson creek or brought up the inside passage in tankers to skagway but with the completion of the canal project with its refinery and network of pipelines the alaska highway had its own fueling system oil from norman wells was refined at white horse and gasoline was pumped through supplementary pipelines to all points on the highway from watson lake to fairbanks by october 1943 there was only one gap left in the highway it was just east of the alaska yukon border on the 13th of october the remaining gap was only a few hundred feet there were two crews working toward each other in this section there was permanent ground frost that meant the ground stayed frozen all summer long down to a depth of 50 or 60 feet if the surface cover of moss and vegetation were disturbed the ground would quickly thaw and become a quagmire so the contractors used a road building technique peculiar to the north rock fill and gravel were spilled out on the ground and carefully spread over the surface in this way insulation was added to that already provided by nature and the frost was permanently locked in when the end was in sight the truck drivers and cat skinners the foreman and superintendents felt the growing excitement they were witnessing the climax of 20 long months of toil by 25 000 men it was six o'clock the sun was down the bulldozers moved in their blades touched the alaska highway was finished a handshake in the gloom of an autumn evening marked the end this is the road these men built and this is a good road as good as any graveled road in the world better in alignment and grades than any road of comparable length on this continent but the alaska highway is much more than a road much more than a brilliant construction fee it is the backbone of our military position in the far northwest its smooth surface provides a safe all-weather route for trucks and cars from the transportation network of southern canada to the interior of alaska through the sixteen hundred miles of integrated canal pipelines fuel to supply the road the airports and the flight strips is readily available now we can press home the attack this is the road through the brooding wilderness this is the wedge which is pried open the last great frontier of america the key which has unlocked the treasure chest of alaska and the canadian northwest you

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Length: 35min 11sec (2111 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 12 2010