Think Second World War -- 1942 -- there is need to establish a port close to Anchorage to bring in men and supplies. The best, closest deepwater port is a fjord some 60 miles from the city. Unfortunately, you have to cross a huge mountain in order to get to it -- but its got to happen so -- build a tunnel for 2.5 miles through solid rock to get under it. But you need people to run the port, and the railway line that goes through the tunnel -- how does that get done ? Where are they all going to live so that summer or winter, you can heat them, feed them, take care of them, and keep track of them. The Army came up with the most efficient answer .... build a huge apartment building between the mountain and the water and put everything inside it -- government -- officers living quarters -- eating -- church -- hotel. Build another block down the road, for the non-commissions officers and troops. Operating costs kept to a minimum -- call it Whittier and the port and railroad function as needed for many years .... Fast forward to 2012 . The tunnel is still the only way in -- but it runs cars now on the half hour, when the trains are not going through. One building has fallen into disrepair from earthquake damage. Think the old apartment building off the beach in Maputo, left behind in 1976 when the Portuguese pulled out. The other block is still there -- and thats where everyone lives !!! Our bed and breakfast is on the 15th floor of this village within a building. The style is still 1945 in recognizable hospital green and cement block style. One side of the building looks out over the fjord and the harbor. Our side looks out at a green and grey mountain side, cut by a long waterfall down from the ice at the top. Strange men sit in the lobby checking on who goes in and out. Families travel the elevators to their homes on the lower floors. This is where we crashed after a full day of glacier viewing.
Prince William's Sound is fantastic
. As flat and calm as the pond in Central Park, it is surrounded by huge peaks which drop straight down into the water. The weather was cold and rainy. Our cruise ship was a latest model catamaran -- which wasted no time roaring off down the channel with us and 345 other lost souls in search of the eternal ice. It is surprisingly uplifting. The narrow water courses between black cliffs studded with trees or small snow drifts led us to a huge lake with glaciers in every direction. The water began to fill with little icebergs which clanged against our aluminum hull. We began to wonder about the fragility of this new fangled machine. The fog came down, and we chugged through the fjords until our advance was halted by the largest wall of ice I have ever seen. So impressive. It is alive, moving and cracking and spewing small streams and bits of ice every now and then. Each glacier is different, and seems to carry its own history and personality -- no two the same. Intensely intriguing -- darkened by the unmentioned awareness we all carried of the gradual but inevitable receding of the line of ice, back up the mountains and eventually out of sight.
A night in Whittier
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Whittier, Alaska, United States
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2025-02-15