Open Passage

A red-white-&-blue ribbon, severed in the middle, fluttered in the Arctic wind. The first U.S.-to-Alaska land route (TIME, Aug. 31) was formally open. Trucks began rolling supplies along the 1,500 miles of double-lane, partly graveled highway from Fort St. John, B.C. to Fairbanks in the heart of Alaska.

Before the Yukon formality, two bulldozer drivers had an opening of their own. Negro Corporal Refines Sims Jr., pushing his bulldozer down from the north, saw trees falling toward him. Over the fallen trees from the south Private Alfred Jalufka of Texas clawed and jerked his own bulldozer. The highway crews at last had met--20 miles east of the Alaska-Yukon border. The Negro and the Texan leaped from their machines and shook hands. The seven-month job was almost done. Then they backed their bulldozers and began widening the trail they had opened.

To the U.S. Army Engineers, who did the building, "road open" means that trucks can travel up & down as fast as 25 m.p.h. Even the spring thaw will stop travel only temporarily, they hope. Ice, breaking in the 200 bridged rivers, will take out many of their bridges. But the Engineers are prepared. Crews will stand by to replace wrecked bridges.

The highway was built as much to supply the airfields along the route as to supply Alaska. There were signs last week that the U.S. was preparing to assure Alaskan supplies by constructing a 1,440-mile railroad from mid-British Columbia to Fairbanks, perhaps to Nome. Since last spring the route has been quietly surveyed under U.S. Engineer Colonel Peter Goerz. A Seattle steel company has bought up the rails from a half-dozen defunct railroads. Washington has discussed the route with Ottawa, and has considered buying a decrepit, 350-mile Canadian railway (between Vancouver and Prince George--although it does not quite reach either) which would fit into the new route.

Faster and less vulnerable than the water route, the railway would insure transportation to make Alaska a supply base for a drive against Japan--should Siberia be opened to U.S. forces.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.