Канада-Аляска тарихи тас жолы

Historic highway from British Columbia, Canada, to Alaska, United States

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Proposals for a highway to Alaska originated in the 1920s. Thomas MacDonald, director of the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads, dreamed of an international highway spanning the United States and Canada. In order to promote the highway, in 1933 Slim Williams originally traveled the proposed route by dogsled. Since much of the route would pass through Canada, support from the Canadian government was crucial. However, the Canadian government perceived no value in putting up the required funds to build the road, since the only part of Canada that would benefit was not more than a few thousand people in Yukon. In 1929, the British Columbia government proposed a highway to Alaska to encourage economic development and tourism. American President Herbert Hoover appointed a board with American and three Canadian members to evaluate the idea. Its 1931 report supported the idea for economic reasons, but both American and Canadian members recognized that a highway would benefit the American military in Alaska. In 1933, the joint commission proposed the U. S. government contribute $2 million of the capital cost, with the $12 million balance borne by the Canadian and BC governments. The Great Depression and the Canadian government's lack of support caused the project to not proceed. When the United States approached Canada again in February 1936, the Canadian government refused to commit to spending money on a road connecting the United States. The Canadians also worried about the military implications, fearing that in a war between Japan and North America, the United States would use the road to prevent Canadian neutrality. During a June 1936 visit to Canada, President Franklin D. Roosevelt told Prime Minister W. L. M. King that a highway to Alaska through Canada could be important in quickly reinforcing the American territory during a foreign crisis. Roosevelt became the first American to publicly discuss the military benefits of a highway in an August speech in Chautauqua, New York. He again mentioned the idea during King's visit to Washington in March 1937, suggesting that a $30 million highway would be helpful as part of a larger defense against Japan that would include, the Americans hoped, a larger Canadian military presence on the Pacific coast. Roosevelt remained a supporter of the highway, telling Cordell Hull in August 1937 that he wanted a road built as soon as possible. By 1938, Duff Pattullo, the BC premier, favored a route through Prince George. The U. S. offered either a $15 million interest free loan, or to cover half the construction costs.

The road was originally built mostly by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers as a supply route during World War II. In 1942, the Army Corps of Engineers assigned more than 10,000 men, about a third of whom were black soldiers, members of three newly formed African American segregated regiments. Unfortunately, disease spread and nearly wiped out the indigenous population of the village. After the war, the survivors left the village to find work, leaving the location a ghost town.

The original agreement between Canada and the United States regarding construction of the highway stipulated that its Canadian portion be turned over to Canada six months after the end of the war. but the remainder was largely gravel. While the entire route is now completely paved (mostly with bituminous surface treatment), as late as the mid 1980s the highway still included sections of winding dusty road sandwiched between high quality reconstructed paved segments. The Milepost, an extensive guide book to the Alaska Highway and other highways in Alaska and Northwest Canada, was first published in 1949 and continues to be published annually as the foremost guide to travelling the highway. The British Columbia government owns the first 82.6 mile (133 km) of the highway, the only portion paved during the late 1960s and 1970s. Public Works Canada manages the highway from Mile 82.6 (km 133) to Historic Mile 630. The Yukon government owns the highway from Historic Mile 630 to Historic Mile 1016 (from near Watson Lake to Haines Junction), and manages the remainder to the U. S. border at Historic Mile 1221. The State of Alaska owns the highway within that state (Mile 1221 to Mile 1422). The Alaska Highway was built for military purposes and its route was not ideal for postwar development of northern Canada.) and in British Columbia, Highway 97. The portion of the Alaska Highway in Alaska is also unsigned Interstate A 1 and unsigned Interstate A 2.

The Canadian section of the road was delineated with mileposts, based on the road as it was in 1947, but over the years, reconstruction steadily shortened the distance between some of those mileposts. In 1978, metric signs were placed on the highway, and the mileposts were replaced with kilometre posts at the approximate locations of a historic mileage of equal value, e. g. km post 1000 was posted about where historical Mile 621 would have been posted. As reconstruction continues to shorten the highway, the kilometre posts, at intervals, were recalibrated along the B. C. section of road to reflect the driving distances in 1990. The section of highway covered by the 1990 recalibration has since been rendered shorter by further realignments, such as near Summit Pass and between Muncho Lake and Iron Creek. Based on where those values left off, new Yukon kilometre posts were erected in fall 2002 between the B. C. border and the west end of the new bypass around Champagne, Yukon; in 2005, additional recalibrated posts continued from there to the east shore of Kluane Lake near Silver City; and in fall 2008, from Silver City to the boundary with Alaska. Old kilometre posts, based on the historic miles, remained on the highway, after the first two recalibrations, from those points around Kluane Lake to the Alaska border. The B. C. and Yukon sections also have a small number of historic mileposts, printed on oval shaped signs, at locations of historic significance; these special signs were erected in 1992 on the occasion of the highway's 50th anniversary. The Alaska portion of the highway is still marked by mileposts at 1 mile (2 km) intervals, although they no longer represent accurate driving distance, due to reconstruction. The historic mileposts are still used by residents and businesses along the highway to refer to their location, and in some cases are also used as postal addresses. The community Wonowon, British Columbia, is named by its location at mile 101, spoken "one oh one". Residents and travelers, and the government of the Yukon, do not use "east" and "west" to refer to direction of travel on the Yukon section, even though this is the predominant bearing of the Yukon portion of the highway; "north" and "south" are used, referring to the south (Dawson Creek) and north (Delta Junction) termini of the highway. This is an important consideration for travelers who may otherwise be confused, particularly when a westbound travel routes southwestward or even due south to circumvent a natural obstacle such as Kluane Lake. Some B. C. sections west of Fort Nelson also route more east to west, with southwest bearings in some section; again, "north" is used in preference to "west". Since 1949 The Milepost, an exhaustive guide to the Alaska Highway and all other routes through the region, has been published each year.