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Construction Begins on the Alaska Pipeline

40s
Construction of the Alaska Pipeline began on March 27, 1975. Over the next three years, workers would battle brutal Arctic weather to construct an eight hundred mile pipeline that traversed three mountain ranges, thirty-four rivers, and eight hundred streams.
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Building a Supply Road for the Pipeline

1m 9s
On April 29, 1974, construction began on a haul road that would link the Yukon River to Prudhoe Bay. Truckers would use the road throughout the construction of the pipeline to transport goods to the North Slope as well as to camps along the way. By fall, the 360-mile long road was ready and would be used to haul three million tons of pipe, machinery, spare parts, fuel and food for 2 1/2 years.
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The Army Corps of Engineers' Assignment

1m 35s
Stretching 1,500 miles through the sub-arctic wilderness, the Alaskan Highway was built to defend Americans from threats in the Pacific. The monumental job was assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers. The order was deceptively simple: build a road to Alaska as fast as possible. The Corps rushed over 10,000 men and 250,000 tons of equipment, materials, and supplies north on troop trains.
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Finishing the Alaska Highway

50s
At 4pm on October 25, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed the last gap of the highway. In fewer than eight months, seven regiments had worked to their utmost limits to clear and lay down an astonishing 1,500 miles of highway. The men who built the highway overcame environmental, technological and physical hardships to complete what many consider one of America's greatest construction projects.
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Environmental Obstacles

2m 59s
As much as the Corps' officers wanted to punch the Alaskan Highway through in a hurry, dealing with muskeg (swamps of decaying vegetation) and mud drastically slowed things down. By the end of June after three months of work, the Engineers had constructed 360 miles of road. The Army knew it had about four months left to build at least 1,100 more miles before winter arrived.
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Clearing the Way

1m 9s
To clear a path for the road, a lead bulldozer, flanked by two others, tore into the dirt and knocked down trees to create a 60 to 90-foot swath. Behind these front units, the bulk of the regiment widened, straightened, and graded the road, and using the timber at hand, built culverts and bridges.
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Arctic Challenges

2m 53s
By September of 1942, the Army Corps of Engineers building the Alaska Highway had struck permafrost—ground that had been frozen for two or more years. After removing the covering vegetation, the frozen ground began to thaw, creating mud. Permafrost wasn’t the only challenge the engineers faced. In October, temperatures began to drop, signaling the start of one of the coldest winters on record.
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Cuba Newsreels: Castro Visits the U.S.S.R., 1972

53s
In 1959, Fidel Castro created the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Culture (Spanish acronym: I.C.A.I.C.), the agency in charge of film production and distribution. The institute owned and controlled cinemas, oversaw all Cuban film productions and monitored imported films. View an excerpt from an I.C.A.I.C. newsreel of Castro's visit to the U.S.S.R. in 1972.
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Cuba Newsreels: Queue of Asylum-Seekers, 1980

2m 27s
In 1959, Fidel Castro created the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Culture (Spanish acronym: I.C.A.I.C.), the agency in charge of film production and distribution. The institute owned and controlled cinemas, oversaw all Cuban film productions and monitored imported films. View an excerpt from an I.C.A.I.C. newsreel on the queue of asylum-seekers in 1980.
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Building the Alaska Highway Promo

30s
In May of 1942, across the rugged sub-Arctic wilderness of Alaska, British Columbia, and Yukon Territory, thousands of American soldiers began one of the biggest and most difficult construction projects ever undertaken -- the building of the Alaska Highway.
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Philippe Petit, High Wire Artist

6m 27s
High wire artist Philippe Petit electrified New York City -- and the world -- with his early morning walk between the twin towers on August 7, 1974. Here he discusses his preparation for the walk and the high wire journey itself.
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Leslie Robertson, Engineer

10m 57s
Engineer for the World Trade Center, Leslie Robertson discusses architectural aspects of the buildings, including the sculptural quality, close columns and narrow windows, the skin structure, and the comparison to the Empire State Building.
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Carol Willis, Architectural Historian

6m 57s
Architectural historian Carol Willis discusses the opposition to the World Trade Center, the public's opinion of skyscrapers, and rebuilding at Ground Zero. Willis was interviewed during the making of Ric Burns' New York: The Center of the World.
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World Trade Center Construction Footage

18m 3s
How did they do it? Find out in this eighteen-minute film, Building the World Trade Center, produced by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1983 with original footage of the towers under construction.
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