American Experience

History Series / 15 Seasons

American Experience, TV's most-watched history series, brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

52m 54s

New Orleans Preview

31s

New Orleans: the utterly original American city that lies at the mouth of the mighty Mississippi and at the beating heart of the great American experiment. The crowded streets of New Orleans have always been a laboratory where the social forces that characterize American life play out in dramatic and, at times, disastrous fashion.

Nixon on Unity: the Silent Majority

1m 33s

President Nixon tried to demonstrate that most Americans supported him with his "Silent Majority" speech in November 1969. "To you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans," Nixon said, "I ask for your support, for the more divided we are at home, the less likely the enemy is to negotiate at Paris."

The Gold Rush Preview

31s

On January 24, 1848, James Marshall found gold near the fork of the American and Sacramento Rivers, and unleashed a massive migration from around the world to what had been a forgotten backwater. With head-spinning speed, these gold-seekers created one of the most extraordinary societies in history -- hard-driving, overwhelmingly male, often brutal.

The Great Fever Preview

31s

The Great Fever documents the heroic efforts of Major Walter Reed's medical team and their investigation into yellow fever. Their discoveries enabled the United States to successfully eradicate the disease among workers constructing the Panama Canal, making possible the completion of one of the most strategic waterways in the world.

Faulty Welds on the Pipeline

1m 23s

In July 1975, Alyeska suffered its first scandal. A subcontractor was found cutting corners by falsifying weld x-rays. Thirty thousand eight hundred welds were in question. The x-rays were used to inspect all of the girth welds around the pipe's circumference. It would take Alyeska a year to check all the x-rays and to repair the sub-par welds.

The Scale and Cost of the Alaska Pipeline

1m 57s

The massive scale of the Alaska Pipeline project made it difficult to maintain adequate supplies of equipment, electricity, and housing. Oil companies would spend almost any amount of money just to transport needed materials to the construction site. The one thing that was not in short supply was workers hoping to cash in on the project.

Moving the Oil by Pipeline

1m 12s

In 1968, Atlantic Ritchfield struck oil in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay. It was a massive strike, the largest oil field ever discovered in North America. Other oil companies joined in and started drilling their own wells. The biggest problem anyone could foresee was how to get 10 billion barrels of oil out of Alaska. Eventually, they agreed that the only practical solution was a pipeline.

Alaska Pipeline: Atigun Pass

1m 19s

In the winter of 1976, Alaska Pipeline construction workers faced the daunting task of laying pipe at Atigun Pass, the highest point on the line rising at 4,800 feet above sea level. Additionally, the arctic weather made for extremely difficult working conditions. Due to the threat of avalanches at Atigun Pass, the pipe had to be buried beneath the permafrost soil.

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.

The Alaska Pipeline's Permafrost Challenge

37s

The oilmen planned to build the Alaska pipeline the same way they'd built every other pipeline in the world -- dig a ditch and bury it. This would not work in the arctic. Beneath a thin, insulating cover of tundra and vegetation, much of Alaska sits on permanently frozen ground called permafrost. In some places, it's mostly gravel, but in others it's mostly ice.

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.

Alaska Pipeline: Thompson Pass

2m 53s

One of the biggest challenges during the construction of the Alaska Pipeline was when workers reached Thompson Pass. There, welders and laborers had to scale a near-vertical 2800-foot mountain wall to install pipe. The solution was to develop a tower and cable system that would fly the 80-foot pipe sections into place. On December 6, 1976, the last piece of pipe was laid at Thompson Pass.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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