Photos Courtesy Alaska Railroad
1923-2023: The Alaska Railroad at 100 years
BY TIM BRADNER In its day, construction of the Alas - ka Railroad in the midst and aftermath of World War I was as defining an event as building of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System in the 1970s. Both were seen as national security infrastructure and key to opening ac - cess to natural resources — the Inte - rior Alaska goldfields in the case of the railroad and newly-discovered North Slope oil fields in the case of the pipe - line. There were key differences, of course.
The pipeline was built and financed by private industry, North Slope oil producers Atlantic Richfield, BP, and Humble Oil (later ExxonMobil). The railroad was a government initiative, owned and operated by the federal gov - ernment until it was purchased by the state of Alaska in 1985 for $22 million. President Woodrow Wilson had the vision to push this strategic infra - structure in 1914, as war clouds loomed in Europe, and to persuade a reluctant Congress to fund its estimated cost of $35 million. Construction began in 2015 with completion in 1923, one hundred years ago on July 15.
President Warren G. Harding trav - eled to Alaska to drive a golden spike at Nenana, southwest of Fairbanks, to mark the completion. On his return trip, Harding died of food poisoning in San Francisco. The number of construction work - ers, peaking at 4,500 in 2017, was not to rival the 10,000 that worked on the pipeline, but the project had a huge impact on Alaska at the time and was to transform the then-territory. An - chorage, founded as a construction
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The Alaska Miner
Summer 2023
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