| In 1923 President Warren G. Harding drove a golden spike, at Nenana, which marked the completion of the Alaska Railroad. The cost to complete the railroad was sixty five million dollars.
On August 27, 1903 the steam ship Santa Ana arrived with men and equipment and the building of the Alaska Center Railroad began. The crew built winter housing for the railroad crews. A dock one hundred and fifty feet long was built and rails was laid out to Resurrection River. The railroaders had started the first miles of the 420 miles from Seward to the Tanana River. On March 28, 1904, the steamer Santa Clara arrived with men who had built other railroads. They began grading the bed for the new railroad. On April 23, 1904 the Santa Clara arrived with a forty ton Baldwin locomotive. Now supplies could be taken by the expanded rail to the construction site. The James Dollar arrived with two hundred tons of steel rails. In the fall of 1904 the rail line was at Kenai Lake, some eighteen miles from Seward. In December of the same year the rail had been pushed to Snow River.
This was the start of the Alaska Railroad, it took twenty years to complete. Today you
can ride from Anchorage to Seward on this historic railroad.
Sources:
"Alaska a History of the 49th State" Claus M Naske and Herman E Slotnick
"History of the Gateway City" Mary J Barry
Visit the Alaska Railroad Web Site: |
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