The bombing of Pearl Harbor in
December 1941 spurred construction of the Alaska Highway.
Alaska was considered vulnerable to a Japanese invasion, and
the highway was deemed a military necessity. Construction of
the Alaska Highway began in March 1942, and was completed 8
months later.
Regiments of the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers were moved north to work on the road. The
Public Roads Administration organized civilian engineers and
equipment, shipping everything from office furniture to
trucks thousands of miles north.
The general route of the
highway, determined by the War Department, was along a line
of existing airfields from Edmonton, AB, to Fairbanks, AK.
But down on the ground, the road followed existing winter
roads, old Indian trails and rivers. Sometimes routing of
the road relied on "sight engineering."
Soldiers of the 36th Regiment
from the south and the 340th Regiment from the north met at
Contact Creek near the British Columbia-Yukon Territory
border on Sept. 24, 1942, marking completion of the southern
sector of the Alaska Highway. By October, it was possible
for a vehicle to travel the entire length of the highway,
which had been dubbed the Alaska-Canada Military Highway, or
"Alcan" for short.
Literally bulldozed through the
wilderness, road conditions along the Alcan were horrific;
90 degree turns and 25 percent grades were not uncommon.
Rain and truck traffic turned sections of the road into an
impassable mire. The highway was improved in 1943. -
http://www.themilepost.com/history.html
