Whittier, a one building town of Alaska | U.S.A. | Sixty and Travelling
This was a very special trip to a unique place, also called the strangest town in Alaska. And there are reasons for this nickname.
Whittier is a tiny town with a very small population of around 250 odd persons. What is unique is the fact that almost 90% of this small population lives in one building. This is a 14 storey building called Begich Towers Inc. (BTI, in short) which is completely self contained with shops school, hospital, city government, in fact everything that one may need. Through wartime underground tunnels from World War II days, BTI is connected with establishments like schools etc, so that during merciless 6 winter months with upto 22 feet snowfall and 135 km per hour speed howling cold winds, life can continue uninterrupted.
And the surrounding natural beauty is simply too stunning and breathtaking. There are 26 glaciers, and tall mountains and waterfalls surrounding this extremely cute and pretty town. This only exit is through a 2.5 mile long tunnel, called Anton Anderson Memorial tunnel or simply Whittier Tunnel. The traffic on this single lane road and rail tunnel is strictly regulated, so much so that if you want to enter Whittier after 10.30 PM, you must wait in your car till next morning .
We thoroughly enjoyed the natural beauty of the place with steaming hot pizza and coffee. We also wanted to touch base with some residents of BTI to get to know more about their life and activities, but nobody was available or willing to talk to us on record.
We came back from Whittier filled with life time memories of sheer natural beauty and grandeur.
Bye for now till we come back with our next Alaska adventure.
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