Whittier

About Whittier

Whittier is a turnaround port for Princess, Holland America, and a few other lines running one-way Gulf of Alaska cruises, reached from Anchorage via the 2.5-mile Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel — a one-lane shared rail/road tunnel that is the longest of its kind in North America. The town itself is tiny: most of its 200 full-time residents live in a single Cold War-era high-rise called Begich Towers, and the cruise experience is almost entirely about transfer to or from the ship. Passengers typically connect directly to motorcoach or rail service for Anchorage, Denali, and Talkeetna. Day-trippers from docked ships can take glacier-viewing boat tours into Prince William Sound's 26 tidewater glaciers in the Kenai Fjords and Chugach National Forest.

• Nearly all of Whittier's roughly 272 residents live in a single building — Begich Towers Condominium — earning the city the nickname 'a town under one roof.'
• Whittier receives an average of 197 inches (5,000 mm) of precipitation per year, making it one of the wettest places in Alaska.
• The city is accessible by road only through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, a single-lane tunnel shared by vehicles and trains that is the longest combined rail-highway tunnel in North America.
• Whittier was built as a secret U.S. Army port during World War II specifically because its location at the head of Passage Canal was hidden from sea-based observation by surrounding mountains.
• It is a key port for the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system, connecting it to communities across Southcentral and Southeast Alaska.