Alaska Highway Facts

Map of the Alaska Highway

The Alaska Highway is the oldest and perhaps the most well-known highway in Alaska. It is also called the Alaska-Canadian Highway and the ALCAN highway, and was constructed during World War II.

The Seward Highway, part of Alaska Route 1

Alaska Route 1 is a major road in the tradition of the Interstate highways found in the lower 48 states. It connects Alaska's largest city, Anchorage, with many parts of the state, and encompasses the Glenn, Seward and Sterling Highways.

A portion of the Dalton Highway

The Dalton Highway is considered the only highway in the United States that leads to the Arctic Ocean, and was only opened to the public in recent years. It was constructed in the mid 1970s to run side by side with the Alaska Pipeline, and was originally meant to be used by truckers. The Dalton Highway is 414 miles long and is extremely desolate, with only a handful of tiny villages such as Coldfoot and Wiseman along the way.

The Alaska Marine Highway is not a highway in the traditional sense. It is a system of ferry services that link the Aleutian Islands in the western part of the state with communities in southern Alaska and the panhandle. Major Alaskan cities on the panhandle include Ketchikan and Juneau, the state capital, are also linked to southern Alaska this way.

The Haines Highway connects towns in Eastern Alaska with British Columbia, and was originally a trail used by prospectors during the famous Klondike Gold Rush at the tail end of the 19th century. Another gold rush trail that became a major road is the Klondike Highway, which connects the somewhat isolated coastal town of Skagway with British Columbia.