Every year the Alaska Railroad creates a commemorative print, and for 2023 it’s asking artists to create works that “reflect the Alaska Railroad’s centennial.” (For any artists interested, submissions are due March 31.) Next year the Alaska Railroad will be celebrating 100 years since its completion: it was in 1923 that crews completed construction of the 700-foot Mears Memorial Bridge across the Tanana River at Nenana, the final link in the railroad (and at the time, the second longest single-span steel railroad bridge in the country). Warren G. Harding drove the golden spike that completed the railroad on July 15, 1923 on the north side of that bridge.

Today the Alaska Railroad is a full-service passenger and freight railroad that services ports and communities from the Gulf of Alaska to Fairbanks, annually carrying hundreds of thousands of passengers and millions of tons of freight over 656 miles of track using 737 freight cars, 45 passenger cars, and 51 locomotives. It paid out $70.5 million in benefits and wages in 2020 and in 2022 has more than 700 employees.

The last weld for the Trans Alaska Pipeline System was completed in May of 1977, so that iconic construction project will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in just a few years. The pipeline project required approximately 70,000 workers to complete construction between 1969 and 1977 and was funded not by federal dollars but by private companies: ARCO, BP, and Humble Oil. Today Alyeska Pipeline Service Company employs approximately 700 people working primarily out of Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Valdez to operate and maintain the pipeline, which over the course of its operations has moved more than 18 billion barrels of oil.

The Port of Alaska, then Port of Anchorage, began operations in 1961 (celebrating sixty years in 2021), moving more than 38,000 tons of cargo in its first year. Construction started on the port in 1958 with an original projected cost of just more than $8 million (secured by Anchorage through the sale of general obligation and revenue bonds to New York financing firm Ira Haupt and Co.) and promised “great savings” of money and time for Alaskans for consumer goods and other imports.

After the Good Friday earthquake in 1964, the Port of Alaska was the only port in Southcentral able to immediately continue operations, setting it up as Alaska’s main shipping hub. Today the port has 3,500 feet of dock frontage, three general cargo terminals, two petroleum terminals, two floating small-vessel docks, and 59,200 tons of bulk cement and 3.1 million barrels of liquid fuel storage, as well as connections to the Alaska Railroad. The bulk of all cargo entering Alaska comes through the port.

They’re big projects, but they’re just three projects: these and thousands of others have built Alaska’s economy since before it was a state, in some cases literally paving the way for the state’s major (and minor, and mid-sized) industries. In this months’ Construction Special Section, we’re excited to highlight an industry that is setting up Alaska for the decades to come. Enjoy.