Only 205 people but it’s still a very odd place . A few people live outside the main building.
And to get there (by land, at any rate) you have to drive through a tunnel (and pay a toll, 13 bucks IIRC). It’s a combined road and rail tunnel–I don’t mean “there’s train tracks next to the roadway”, I mean you drive on the railroad tracks. It’s a single-lane tunnel, with a traffic control system to allow a “convoy” of cars to drive to Whittier, followed by a convoy of cars leaving Whittier, and occasionally they stop all the automobile traffic to let a train go through. It’s also a very “raw” tunnel, with rugged natural-rock walls (as opposed to smooth concrete sides).
Definitely an odd little place. Before the current Building Where Nearly Everyone In Town Lives there was a previous such building during the early Cold War named the Buckner Building (no relation*) which is now in ruins and looks like the setting to a horror movie or a video game where you have to fight off zombies.
*Maybe some distant relation, but my branch–the No-Account Buckners–probably diverged from the more high-class Simon Bolivar Buckner line a couple of centuries ago.
Yeah, Whittier is an odd little fishing town. We drove there and caught the Alaska ferry on one of our trips in the old RV. Took the ferry to Cordova and drove out to the Million Dollar Bridge, which slipped off one of its piers during the 1964 earthquake. Then took the ferry to Valdez, which is the terminus for the Alaska Pipeline and where you can reconnect with the road system.
We used to know a couple who moved there for a few years, having no better option at that point in their lives. Like nearly everyone else they lived inside “The Building.”
Their marriage, which had already been on thin ice, finally imploded. It was ugly, acrimonious, and very sad for the innocent children involved, all of which was made especially painful and humiliating by happening inside a fishbowl.
A strange place.
It’s a nice day trip from Anchorage. Drove there a couple times; once to hike out to Portage Glacier and another time to launch a boat and explore Prince William Sound. I kinda miss Alaska, but I don’t think I’ll ho back. 4 years was enough, I think.
I did basically that same trip in 2010, except I flew to Valdez on a float plane instead of taking the ferry. I was told that the Million Dollar Bridge was the original “bridge to nowhere” (apparently more than one Alaska bridge has earned that nickname), as the road isn’t maintained beyond the bridge.
In Whittier I was told the Buckner Building can’t be demolished (or at least it would be cost prohibitive to demolish it) because 1) It contains asbestos. 2) The debris would have to be hauled out through the tunnel.
If people want to visit the town, for whatever reason, is there no place to stay overnight?
I believe some of the apartments in the big building almost everyone lives in are available to rent for the night as “hotel rooms”.
Far from being a bridge to nowhere, the Miles Glacier Bridge (its real name) was part of the railway constructed by the Guggenheims and J.P. Morgan around the turn of the century to transport copper ore from the Kennicott Mine. Its cost was just over a million bucks, which earned it its name, but considering that hundreds of millions of dollars in copper was mined out of the Copper River Valley, it was a pretty good investment.
The road is not maintained beyond the bridge (or even from Cordova up to the bridge) because its no longer accessible by wheeled vehicles. When we drove up the Copper River Road to the bridge, it was in the late 90s/early 2000s. The road is so badly eroded now, that you can only get to the bridge by boat. We also did a fly-over of the bridge on a chartered small plane out of the town of Kennicott. Great flight down the beautiful Copper River Valley.
Sounds like a very efficient system. Only have to heat and maintain one building instead of several. Plus the school and government buildings are connected via tunnel. Much less or no snow removal.
The article didnt mention any kind of store, restaurant, or other business.
But 14 stories? Hope the elevator never breaks.
Oh cool. I must go there now.
Ok, I just looked it up and the building has other services like post office, church, and grocery store. LINK.
There was an ice cream joint near the pier where the ferry docks IIRC.
Yes, but IIRC it got the “bridge to nowhere” nickname after the state got federal funds to repair the bridge after the 1964 earthquake. I assume the railroad was no longer active at that point.
Sounds like fun. (Not sarcastic)
If you visit Whittier as a tourist, you will likely have no need to go to the building where everybody lives, and there are plenty of other buildings in the town, such as shops and restaurants. Look it up on Google Maps.
I wonder what the rent is and where they work if they don’t work in the building. I guess some work on fishing boats?
missed the edit time there is a small hotel there : http://www.anchorinnwhittier.com/
It was not repaired in the sense of hoisting the one span up onto its pier. There were ramps and other temporary systems installed, but no permanent repairs done until 2004.
Video clip of the last time I drove through it.