Alaska Highway

Road that runs from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Fairbanks, Alaska; length 2,450 km/1,522 mi. It was built in 1942 as a supply route for US military forces in Alaska. The highway runs along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains: nearly 2,000 km/1,240 mi of it lies in Canadian territory, and it forms the most northerly section of the Pan-American Highway; it is paved in Alaska but mostly cold-asphalted in Canada.

The highway was constructed in about nine months during the war against Japan in the Pacific, at a cost of over $100 million. The construction of the road was the subject of international planning, and it was known for a time as the Alcan Highway. In 1948 it was opened up to civilian traffic. There is a branch of the highway running to Haines, Alaska, on the Lynn Canal, an inlet of the southern Alaskan coastline.