-----For the soldiers and civilian workers building the Alaska Highway, it was a hard life. Working 7 days a week, 16 hours a day, they endured mosquitoes and black flies in summer and below-zero temperatures in winter.
-----In June 1942, the Japanese invaded Attu and Kiska Islands in the Aleutians, adding a new sense of urgency to the completion of the Highway. It was completed October 25, 1942 and was open to the public in 1948.
-----Today's highway is a two-lane, mostly paved route that winds and rolls across the wilderness. There are a lot of gravel portions and we had to drive VERY slowly, shimmying and shaking.