The Epic Story of Alaska's Copper River Railway

Between 1907 and 1911, in the face of howling winds, surging glaciers, and temperatures falling to 60 below zero, the Copper River & Northwestern Railway was built through the wilderness of eastern Alaska. This video traces the epic story of the railroad's construction.
The sequel to this video follows my journey along the Copper River in search of the railroad's remains:
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If you liked this video, you might also enjoy my book “Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants: Frequently Asked Questions about the Ancient Greeks and Romans.”
www.amazon.com/Naked-Statues-...
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:43 Copper at Kennicott
1:51 The Alaska Syndicate
2:49 Big Mike Heney
3:29 The Copper River route
4:08 Construction begins
4:57 Bringing boats over the mountains
5:41 Canyons, dynamite, and ice
6:41 Planning the Million Dollar Bridge
7:49 Piers and caissons
8:30 Working through the winter
9:00 Laying the falsework
10:05 The spans begin to rise
11:05 The final push
12:16 The Chitina Bridge
12:50 The Kuskulana Bridge
13:28 The Gilahina Trestle
14:02 The tracks reach Kennicott
15:20 The railroad is abandoned
16:24 My journey down the Copper River

[@abid5087]

That is an a fascinating story. It is so cool to see the old photographs and your own footage of the same area. I look forward to more videos on this channel

[@HalsPals]

WoW! This was well worth watching. May 1910 was an interesting time with Haley's Comet passing overhead, Mark Twain and King Edward VII also both dying around the same time. 1901 to 1914 was generally a golden age of peace in the world from the way I understand it. Thanks for adding to the history of the era.

[@Ramser03]

You’re a brilliant historian and excellent narrator. This video was fascinating, a nice deep dive on something I’ve never even heard of.

[@bentationfunkiloglio]

Truly remarkable accomplishment. Hard to imagine a river full of sparkling silver.

[@JozefLucifugeKorzeniowski]

my dad and I visited the million dollar bridge about 6 years ago at the start of the salmon run. Prince William sound is beautiful before winter begins to take hold.

[@randallfrank5682]

This is a great story of American ingenuity, hard work and lots of money. In August of 1997 my wife, our two children and I drove the road to McCarthy & Kennicott with two other families, staying overnight in one of the old superintendent's homes that had been turned into a BnB along the road above the hotel. Walking through the old mill and seeing the copper ore was very interesting. Also, in August of 2003 we floated down the Copper River from Chitina to the Million Dollar Bridge with 5 other people in 3 rafts. We could see lots of places where the railroad tracks were still in place albeit most were in poor condition. The float trip was 3 nights and 4 days. We had good weather on both trips. Our guides had made this float trip about 4 or 5 times before and they always took out upstream of the bridge because of the huge waves caused by the Childs Glacier calving into the river. The last night we camped out right next to Miles Lake and listened to the ice bergs calving all night sounding like rifle shots. The trip from our camping spot on Miles Lake to the bridge was interesting because we had to thread our way through a thick field of floating icebergs. After spending a fun night in Cordova, we caught the Alaska State Ferry system to Valdez where we had left two pickups.

[@Dave_Sisson]

Wow. I thought the long abandoned mining railways and tramways through Tasmania's rugged and rain-soaked west coast were extreme. But this railway really puts them in their place. 😲

[@harrisonshone7769]

The construction of this rail line would be a fantastic setting for a horror movie.

[@evanpyne4729]

To think that people 2000 years from now we will have the same astonishment for the men who built the northwestern railway as we do for the achievements of the Romans, yet we live in a time where we still have these constructions and first hand sources of how they were made, and the day by day challenges and struggles they went through to make them, it really makes you appreciate how lucky we are to live today, and also how lucky we are to have such an engaging and well spoken presenter such as yourself to transport us to the coast of alaska 120 years ago!

[@shawnparadise6504]

Alaska is such an amazing place.

[@lukesmith1818]

Incredible forgotten history told in a compelling way.

[@KnaveRain]

Tarantula Jack Smith... I really want to know how he got that nickname!

[@jmeyer3rn]

Been there. Beautiful scenery.

[@richardglady3009]

Speaking from a wheelchair in Arizona, thanks for videos like these. Although you didn’t necessarily need another subscriber-you got one. Thanks.

[@digginz8603]

Second comment: This is even more interesting than Told In Stone!

[@maxasaurus3008]

What’s Told in Stone?

[@KnaveRain]

@@maxasaurus3008 His main channel deals with what life was like in the times of the Roman Empire

[@RickLowrance]

The rails hanging with no support is amazing.

[@johndanger8717]

More history of roads/rails pls😊

[@AJWRAJWR]

Tough men. It's wistful to think that a lot of them lived on long enough to hear of the abandonment of the railway built by their hard toil.

[@johnspizziri1919]

Unbelievable. Thank you !

[@Caligulashorse1453]

I’ve actually been up there it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world

[@Awwsteen]

Amazing video, I can't wait for more!!

[@hamiljohn]

Very entertaining and interesting!

[@dystopik32]

Great content, loving the new channel!

[@Solfaur]

Great video, quality content, as always. It would be great to have more videos like this one or the "Wild West", as an European I always find this time period in US history fascinating. Good luck with this 2nd channel and the 3rd one!

[@imills]

Hope you enjoyed your time here in Alaska. This was an awesome video. I would love to see your take on some of the other historic routes in Alaska as well.

[@asheland_numismatics]

Very interesting video! 👍

[@jaromirkraus9034]

Fabulous!

[@joseph6270]

love this new exploration into other historical subjects. Another landmark to add to the bucket list

[@TheShorttii]

Great story, thanks for putting it together!

[@eugenekupiec2802]

This could be great book!

[@dizzzzzzler]

That’s insane! 20% of the population exclusively working on the train line. What a huge mobilization of men.

[@aegis29]

Really fascinating story! I enjoy how this pretty much feels just like one of your main channel vids.

[@tysonjankowiak]

fascinating

[@t.wcharles2171]

Third (MAIN) comment excellent video Garret

[@KJamesMellick]

@ Scenic Routes to the Past: Excellent video. You are using photos I have not seen before tho. Can you provide references as to where you found the photos you used?

[@scenicroutestothepast]

Glad you enjoyed it! Most of the historical photos used in this video were provided by the Cordova Historical Museum.

[@liamtahaney713]

Damn i would watch some much "told in tracks" content.

[@Moredread25]

Interesting

[@tobygoodguy4032]

Even if you were Guggenheim, today in America as conveyed by executive diktat, you couldn't get away with building something like this. BTW, one doesn't 'dump' concrete - its 'placed'. 🤠

[@DavidHuber63]

Glaciers retreat from heat, as in steal Sun magnets

[@orionbalfe551]

What is the book that you reference at the start of the video?

[@scenicroutestothepast]

Rex Beach's "The Iron Trail"

[@TeddyBelcher4kultrawide]

Company video🫶🏼🐧

[@max3346]

What is the cost of 23.000.000$ adjusted for 2022 inflation?

[@farticlesofconflatulation]

Divide by 20 and multiply by the current price of gold/ troy ounce.

[@liamroggenkamp]

It’s about 720 million today

[@digginz8603]

First comment!!!!!!