Month: August 2018

The town of Whittier, Alaska began as an Army installation named Camp Sullivan during WWII. A deep water ice-free port and a train spur through the newly completed tunnel made it the perfect entry to supply the interior of Alaska. It was also chosen because of its lousy weather, yes, I said lousy weather. Whittier is a soggy place that recieves on average, 200 inches of rain, and 250 inches of snow and has roaring winter winds. All of these combined made it the perfect place for an undetectable military base by enemy survaillance. The original camp consisted of wooden buildings, trailers, piers and railroad facilities.

Fast forward a few years to the cold war and Whittier once again became an important port. The town’s 2 very large concrete buildings were built during this time. The Hodge Building had apartments for families and the Buckner Building had sleeping quarters for 1,000 military personnel and all the amenities they could need such as cafeterias, bakeries, a theater and bowling alley, babershop and medical facilities, and of course, a 6 cell jail. It was known as “the city under one roof”.  The two buildings were even connected by underground tunnels so travel between the buildings and the school was easy during the winter.

In 1964, the military abandoned the base and the town of Whittier was born.

Darrin used to have to travel a lot for work. One time, he was trapped on a plane for hours waiting to take off. As he sat there, the walls closed in. His coworker literally climbed over Darrin’s seat and headed for the door stating that he was getting off this plane right now! Just then they were cleared to take off and all was okay. That bit of claustrophobia has stuck with him.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago when we realized getting to Whittier involved driving through a tunnel, a very long tunnel. Did I mention that the rover was in desperate need of a tune up! Did I mention that the Whittier Tunnel is one of the world’s longest drivable tunnels. Did I mention that its 2 and a half miles long! Suddenly, Darrin is back on the plane, but this time it’s him scrambling for the door saying I’m outa here!

The construction of the Whittier Tunnel began in earnest between 1941 and 1943 as a railroad line to reach the year round, ice free port in Whittier during WW2. As more people wanted to access Whittier (being only 1 hour out of Anchorage) they began to load cars on the train to transport people and vehicles. In 1998 the tracks were modified to allow both vehicle and trains to traverse the tunnel.

Here is how it works. The tunnel is one way traffic only. You line up on the hour or half hour depending on the direction. The light turns green and you proceed at 25mph with a 50 to 100 yard spacing to the vehicle in front of you. You periodically pass fire safety shelters and can feel the blast of huge turbine fans that provide breathable air and clear the exhaust. You bounce along in the dark through the tiny, rough blasted tunnel. All the while thinking “If something happens now, it’s a mile walk out of here in either direction!”

Now that we are through it’s not as bad as it sounds. It’s a bit like a Disney theme ride….narrow, dark, cold, dripping, rough blasted rock….oh crap…I’m outa here!