Building the Alaska Highway

This episode of &quot;The American Experience&quot; is set during WWII. The Allies are concerned, as Alaska is very close to Japanese territory--and getting to Alaska to fight off a Japanese attack there (which eventually did happen) would be impossible as would supplying our new Russian allies without a highway to send supplies and troops through the heart of Canada to Alaska. The problem was that this road would have to become freaking huge and needed to be done quickly. Normally, a road like this should have taken a decade or more to make--they were committed to making it in less than a year! Could it be done? And what would it be like working in this god-forsaken freezing wilderness?! 

Over the last year, I&apos;ve become an &quot;American Experience&quot; junkie--checking out all the episodes I could find on Netflix. At this point, there are only a few left--and they are ones that are mostly of topics I didn&apos;t find as interesting as the ones I chose months ago. So, this episode about the creation of the &quot;Alcan&quot; or Alaskan-Canadian highway during WWII was one I honestly had far less interest in seeing....far, far less. You may not feel this way about the topic--so don&apos;t avoid it simply because it wasn&apos;t one that excited me. I just found my mind wandering and my butt shifting in my chair a lot--sure signs that I just wasn&apos;t interested in the topic--though I really did have to admire the engineering feat accomplished by these folks!

This episode of "The American Experience" is set during WWII. The Allies are concerned, as Alaska is very close to Japanese territory--and getting to Alaska to fight off a Japanese attack there (which eventually did happen) would be impossible as would supplying our new Russian allies without a highway to send supplies and troops through the heart of Canada to Alaska. The problem was that this road would have to become freaking huge and needed to be done quickly. Normally, a road like this should have taken a decade or more to make--they were committed to making it in less than a year! Could it be done? And what would it be like working in this god-forsaken freezing wilderness?! 

Over the last year, I've become an "American Experience" junkie--checking out all the episodes I could find on Netflix. At this point, there are only a few left--and they are ones that are mostly of topics I didn't find as interesting as the ones I chose months ago. So, this episode about the creation of the "Alcan" or Alaskan-Canadian highway during WWII was one I honestly had far less interest in seeing....far, far less. You may not feel this way about the topic--so don't avoid it simply because it wasn't one that excited me. I just found my mind wandering and my butt shifting in my chair a lot--sure signs that I just wasn't interested in the topic--though I really did have to admire the engineering feat accomplished by these folks!

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Building the Alaska Highway

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