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The Alaska Highway (French: Route de l'Alaska; also known as the Alaskan Highway, Alaska-Canadian Highway, or ALCAN Highway) was constructed during World War II to connect the contiguous United States to Alaska across Canada.
The route was developed in 1942 for several reasons. Initially, the 7th Ferrying Group, Ferrying Command, United States Army Air Corps (later Air Transport Command) at Gore Field (Great Falls Municipal Airport) was ordered to organize and develop an air route to send assistance to the Soviet Union through Northern Canada, across Alaska and the Bering Sea to Siberia, and eventually over to the ...
During World War II the United States was concerned about Japan attacking the west coast and cutting off supply lines to Alaska. They built the Alaska Highway to connect Alaska to the rest of the United States and conceived the CANOL (Canadian Oil) project to ensure a supply of oil from Norman Wells in the Canadian Northwest Territories.
The Alcan–Beaver Creek Border Crossing (French: Poste frontalier d'Alcan–Beaver Creek) is a border crossing point between the United States and Canada.It is located on the historic Alaska Highway, which was built during World War II for the purpose of providing a road connection between the contiguous United States and Alaska through Canada.
During World War II, the Alaska Highway was built to connect a road in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada with the Richardson Highway in Alaska, a distance of 1,423 miles (2290 km). The Alaska Highway met the Richardson Highway at Delta Junction , five miles (8 km) north on the Richardson Highway from what is now Fort Greely.
The highway was designated as Yukon Highway 8 until 1978, when it became Yukon Highway 6. The Yukon section of the road is little changed from 1945, although culverts have replaced some of the original one-lane bridges, and several one-lane Bailey bridges remain. There are very few two-lane bridges on the road.
The Alaska Highway Veterans is a group of roughly 4,000 segregated African American soldiers in the United States Army Corps of Engineers who helped build the Alaska Highway in 1942. The highway's successful construction is seen by many as an important factor in the 1948 decision to desegregate the military. [1] [2]
Alaska became strategically important for the United States during World War II; there was concern that the Japanese might invade it, as Alaska was the closest part of the United States to Japan. Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor , the decision was made by the US and Canadian governments to construct the Alaska Highway as an all-weather ...