Alaska Highway is a 1,397-mile (2,248-kilometer) road that runs between Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and Delta Junction, Alaska. The Richardson Highway links Delta Junction and nearby Fairbanks. The Alaska Highway is the only highway that connects Alaska with the road systems of the other states and Canada.
United States Army engineers and civilian contractors built the Alaska Highway as a military supply route in 1942 and 1943, when the United States was fighting in World War II. The highway was originally known as the Alcan Highway. The highway’s original length was 1,422 miles (2,288 kilometers). The southern 1,221 miles (1,965 kilometers) of the road that crosses Canada became the property of Canada on April 1, 1946. Reconstruction has shortened the length in Canada to 1,196 miles (1,925 kilometers). Nearly all of the highway has a paved surface. The region’s extreme weather, however, occasionally damages the surface and can lead to uneven driving conditions.
