This Incredible 1944 Video Shows How The US Army Carved The First Version Of The Alcan Highway Through The Yukon In 8 Months


This Incredible 1944 Video Shows How The US Army Carved The First Version Of The Alcan Highway Through The Yukon In 8 Months

While there is nothing “good” about war it certainly triggers, causes, and invites human feats of innovation and creation that would otherwise take far longer if they ever happened at all. Scientific breakthroughs, technological advancement, and infrastructure projects are all the things that a war seems to trigger and that was certainly true in WWII where a period of less than 10 years saw incredible things solved and created. For the most part these things solved and created were designed to inflict maximum punishment on our enemies (atomic bomb) but other things were done for defensive purposes that have stood as great benefits for the country. The Big Inch and the Little Big Inch pipelines are still being used today and the Alcan highway linked Alaska with the “mainland” by road for the first time possible.

As you will learn in the video below, the Alcan was conceived after Pearl Harbor and cut over a period of eight months because the US Army looked at Japan and the Aleutian Islands along with our ability to defend a possible point of entry onto the west coast of the country and saw that we were in bad shape. There were few defenses and the ones we had could only be supplied via air, which was not efficient or speedy enough in terms of volume to get the necessary equipment and munitions to areas that may sorely need them in the event the Japanese made a move.

Marshaling up all the people and equipment that they could, the Army started in Dawson’s Creek and used three teams of men starting in three different areas to push north and south simultaneously to cut the road. Now understand that this was a road in the purest definition. Basically it was a bulldozer path with log bridges wherever necessary to allow trucks to make the 1,500 mile trip to Fairbanks, Alaska. You will see literal armies of Allis-Chalmers bulldozers pushing, grading, and dozing everything in their path. Men in open cab tractors working through the winter months to make this happen. You will see cars and trucks fighting the ice and snow on the road, sliding off, getting stuck, and clawing helplessly at the permafrost that turned to muck in the Spring. This was hard work and it was done by a hearty band of Army soldiers.

You will also see the road in operation and the trucks being fixed and maintained at the various stopping stations along the way. The guys lived in tents and then Quonset huts. The quonset huts were heaped with sawdust at the base as a way to provide some rudimentary insulation for the guys staying inside. Soon after the road was opened in its rough state, civilian companies were hired to make it an all-season affair with pavement and all. You’ll see them working, too.

The video is an unending stream of killer footage showing period equipment making the impossible happen. You’ll see how the guys lived and the stuff they used to build the road. I am a dork supreme for this stuff but I think you will agree that this is a spectacular watch and an unpresucedentedly awesome look into the construction of one of the most amazing roads in the world.

SEE HOW AND WHY THE US ARMY CUT THE ALCAN HIGHWAY THROUGH CANADA IN 1942 BELOW!


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