Alaska Highway

The Alaska Highway stretches 2,197 kilometres from Dawson Creek in British Columbia to Delta Junction in Alaska, cutting through some of the most remote wilderness in North America. It was built in just eight months in 1942 by the US Army Corps of Engineers as an emergency supply corridor after the attack on Pearl Harbor — a feat accomplished across permafrost, muskeg, and mountain ranges by over 11,000 soldiers, including three African American regiments whose contributions went largely unrecognized for decades. Designated a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, the route today is a classic long-distance road trip: drivers encounter grizzly bears, moose, and bison at the roadside, pass original mile markers from the wartime construction, and travel through boreal forest, alpine passes, and open tundra before reaching the Alaskan interior.