Abstract: As this fine documentary points out, the construction of the Alaska (originally the Alcan) Highway was one of the great achievements of twentieth-century American civil engineering, surpassed perhaps only by the building of the Panama Canal. It was not the quality of the work done that made it so remarkable, for large sections fell apart the year after it was completed, and much of it eventually had to be relocated and entirely rebuilt. What made it so impressive, as this film points out, is the speed at which it was built: over 1,500 miles of highway driven through mostly unmapped bush wilderness in the astonishingly short period of eight months. The fact that the order to build the road was issued in February 1942, that work began in April, and that a (barely) passable road was finished by the end of October must stand as one of the great achievements...
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot