100 Years of Passengers, Freight, and Real Estate: The Alaska Railroad's centennial.

• Author: Newman, Amy

Catch a glimpse of the Alaska Railroad snaking its way south to Seward or crossing Hurricane Gulch between Talkeetna and Denali Park, its passengers snapping photographs from a glass-domed car or open-air viewing platform, and you'd be inclined to think the railroad is just another piece of the Alaska tourism puzzle.

But the Alaska Railroad, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, is so much more. The last full-service railroad in the country, it's a vital piece of infrastructure that literally and figuratively keeps Alaska moving. Each year, the railroad transports tourists and residents, delivers freight, and develops its vast real estate holdings to benefit both the railroad and Alaska's economy.

"The railroad is a big, big deal all around for residents of Alaska... the passenger and freight and real estate sides," says Alaska Railroad Corporation President and CEO Bill O'Leary, who in 2013 became the first lifelong Alaskan to hold the position. "It's really critical for Alaska to have this infrastructure in place."

The infrastructure, which supports the railroad's combined passenger and freight service, includes 656 miles of track; 170 bridges and culverts; 793 freight and passenger cars; rail yards in Seward, Whittier, Anchorage, and Fairbanks; 10 rail depots; and 36,000 acres of land.

"People have a tendency to think about railroads as, 'How quaint, how 19th century,' but so much of this is driven by cutting-edge type technology now," O'Leary says. "It's quite incredible what modern railroads are about, it's not your grandfather's railroad anymore."

Quasi-Public Corporation

The Alaska Railroad was officially born on July 15, 1923, when President Warren G. Harding drove the golden spike in Nenana, signifying the end of construction. But the history of the tracks stretches to 1903, when the Alaska Central Railway built the first railroad in Southcentral. Headquartered in Seward, the railroad extended 50 miles north; seven years later, it was renamed the Alaskan Northern Railway Co. and extended another 21 miles to Kern Creek, near Girdwood.

In 1914 the federal government, looking to access Interior mineral deposits while skirting a private railroad out of Cordova, authorized $35 million to construct and operate the Alaska Railroad. The project extended the tracks from Seward to the Tanana Valley Railroad yard in Fairbanks and relocated headquarters to Ship Creek, which became the town of Anchorage.

The railroad's first profitable year was 1938, and World War II saw profits continue...