We drove over to Whittier, Alaska today. To get to Whittier you have to drive through a 2 1/2 mile railroad tunnel. They have traffic lights and it is only one way traffic going or coming back. The trip over to Whittier is on the half hour and trip back from Whittier is on the hour. That is if the train isn’t using the tunnel. If the train is there it has the right away. We were in the 10:30am crossing going into Whittier and the 12:00pm crossing coming back. Whittier is a very different town. It is a port town and appears to move a lot of freight. I assume most of it goes to Anchorage but don’t know that for a fact. The tunnel was built to move war supplies for the armed forces during WWII and has only been opened to auto traffic since 2000. Before that all cars and trucks had to be loaded on a railroad car and go through the tunnel that way. Most of the people in Whittier live in one building. It is 17 stories tall. The reason appears to be that there isn’t room for housing in the small area around the harbor. The entire area is surrounded by mountains which is the reason there are no roads going to Whittier except through the tunnel. There isn’t much in Whittier and it wasn’t overly interesting but it probably would have been a lot prettier if the sun had been shining. It costs $12 to use the tunnel to go into Whittier but nothing to come back. This is a picture of the tunnel entrance.
This is coming out of the tunnel at Whittier.
There are several waterfalls on the mountains surrounding the city.
Mattie is making soup tonight and Twila is making a bread pudding. Tomorrow we head for Seward, Alaska. Seward is another port city. We have now driven 4283 miles since leaving home.
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