World War II Telephone Line Still Connecting Alaska Today

World-War-Ⅱ-era telephone line still in use in Upper Tanana Valley Alaska (2021)

I explore the remarkable story of the Alaska Military Telephone Line, a 2,020-mile network built during World War II to link Edmonton to Fairbanks. Despite harsh winters, material shortages, and the need for copper-clad steel wire, crews completed this vital infrastructure by 1943. Today, sections of this historic line, with poles tilting at crazy angles, still provide local telephone service in the Upper Tanana Valley.

"When the ground thawed in the spring the road became a seemingly bottomless bog."