Tagish River, 1,275 feet wide, posed the first major obstacle to the 93rd Engineering Regiment. To build Alaska Highway through Yukon, the soldiers of the 93rd had to get a road out of Carcross, and during the first week of May local guide, Johnny Johns, guided Captain James Cassano as he laid out a path for one. At the end of the week, 23 miles out, they reached the Tagish river with Tagish Village on its far side.
The Steepest Railroad Grade–getting to Carcross
The soldiers of the 93rd came to build road. The soldiers of the 73rd Pontoon Company would deal with the river.
On the wintry early morning of May 6, half of the regiment’s soldiers, three companies, swung their axes and dropped their dozer blades, digging into Cassano’s path out of Carcross. They worked past Lake Jacoby and then Crag Lake relatively easily. And the soldiers of the 73rd Pontoon Company struggled through the woods right behind them, dragging their ferry.
When the road builders reached the Tagish, the soldiers of the 73rd reached it with them and they immediately set about creating their temporary ‘bridge’.
The pontoon men attached their fourteen-foot-wide by forty foot long platform to the top of five 4 foot by 24 foot pontoons. On each of the two outermost pontoons they mounted a twenty-horsepower outboard motor. To the center pontoon they attached a larger motor for emergency use.
The road builders of Company A reached Tagish River at 7 pm on the 28th. and it took two days to get them across to the village. Company C crossed on the 30th. B Company crossed on June 1.
The ferry could carry one D8, or two large trucks or four weapons carriers. It could also haul a large crane-shovel—minus its boom. And the ferry would remain in place, carrying a flood of supplies and heavy equipment across until the road builders could get back and build an actual bridge.
I used to drive the Alcan highway.
I like the stories of the construction.
Thank you.