RAILWAY ROUTES IN ALASKA' 



By Alfred H. Brooks 



Geologist in Charge of Alaskan Division, U. S. Geological Survey 



TRANSPORTATION is the first 

 essential element to the indus- 

 trial advancement of a new 

 land. Therefore, though the subject of 

 railway location may be of no great aca- 

 demic interest, there lies a justification 

 for its discussion in the fact that it is of 

 such vital importance to those who are 

 developing the resources of Alaska. 

 Moreover, the matter is timely because of 

 its relation to a broad question of public 

 policy, for many efforts have been made 

 in recent years to obtain financial support 

 from the federal government for Alaskan 

 railway projects. 



Popular interest in this subject appears 

 to be only excelled by popular ignorance 

 of it — an ignorance, too, which is con- 

 stantly being augmented by misstate- 

 ments in current literature. Some years 

 ago the assertion was made in a maga- 

 zine article that some parts of Alaska 

 were being rapidly gridironed by rail- 

 ways. To those familiar with the prim- 

 itive condition of transportation main- 

 taining throughout the territory, such a 

 statement can appear little short of ridic- 

 ulous. This misleading article has, how- 

 ever, evidently been regarded as author- 

 itative, for it has found place in a popular 

 encyclopaedia. 



Though the aggregate mileage of rail- 

 ways in Alaska is less than 200, but little 

 more than that of Porto Rico, this is 

 divided among eight different lines. Of 

 these, four are along the Pacific sea- 

 board, three on the Seward Peninsula, 

 and one in the Tanana Valley (see map, 

 page 164). All of these railways have 

 been built to supplement water trans- 

 portation. 



RAILWAY LOCATION 



In the discussion to follow of the prin- 

 ciples governing railway location, I will 



confine myself entirely to commercial 

 lines, for obviously railways built for 

 military or scenic purposes will follow 

 routes determined by entirely different 

 conditions. 



The controlling factors of railway loca- 

 tion fall into two important groups, here 

 termed (i) commercial and (2) geo- 

 graphic, while in regions lying close to 

 international boundaries a third, namely, 

 political, becomes operative. Each of the 

 first two groups resolves itself into sev- 

 eral subordinate factors, one or more of 

 which may dominate in any given prov- 

 ince, to the practical exclusion of all the 

 others. The following table is an at- 

 tempt to present a terse analysis of the 

 problem of railway location: 



I. Commercial control: 



1. Developed resources (statistics of pro- 



duction and commerce). 



2. Undeveloped resources. 



Mineral (economic geology). 



Agricultural (climate, soils, and bot- 

 any). 



Timber (distribution, quality, and 

 quantity) . 



3. Population. 



4. Competitive or supplementary lines of 



transportation (navigable waters and 

 existing railways). 



II. Geographic control: 



1. Position (terminals and connecting lines 



of transportation). 



2. Distances (comparison of distances of 



different routes). 



3. Relief (mountain ranges, passes, and 



valleys, as affecting gradients). 



4. Water-courses (depths and width of 



rivers, as affecting construction of 

 bridges or ferries). 



5. Climate (precipitation, etc., as affecting 



cost of construction, operation, and 

 maintenance). 



III. Political control: 



I. Political boundaries. 



Before analyzing this table I will fore- 

 stall possible criticism by stating that 

 certain elements which must of necessity 



* Published by permission of the Director of the United States Geological Survey. Read at 

 the third annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New York, January 

 I, 1907. 



