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ALASKA RAILROAD CORPORATION

(Alaska Central Railroad, Alaska Northern Railroad Co., Tanana Valley Railroad Co)

The Alaskan Railroad Corporation orginiated in 1903. As a company called the Alaska Central Railroad.

When the company began constructing a rail line beginning at Seward, Alaska. Near the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula northward. The company constructed fifty-one miles track. When in 1909 the company went into receivership. This route carried passengers, freight and mail to the upper Turnagain Arm. From there, goods were taken by boat at high tide, and by dog team or pack train to Eklutna and the Matanuska-Susitna Valley.

In 1909, the company was acquired Alaska Northern Railroad Company of Anchorage, Alaska. And, extended the rail line another twenty-one miles northward. From the new end, goods were floated down the Turnagain Arm via small boats. However in 1914, the Alaska Northern Railroad went into receivership.

Around this time United States government had begin planning a railroad route from Seward, Alaska to Fairbanks, Alaska. The President, William Howard Taft, authorized a commission to survey a route in 1912. The line would be more than four-hundred and seventy miles long. Providing an all weather route to the interior.

In 1914, the Alaska Northern Railroad was acquired by the United States Government. The company relocated its headquarters to Ship Creek, Alaska. Ship Creek would later be renamed Anchorage, Alaska. The government extended the rail line northward.

In 1917, the Tanana Valley Railroad Company based in Fairbanks, Alaska. Was heading into bankruptcy. The company owned a small forty-five mile, narrow gauge line that serviced the towns of Fairbanks, Alaska and the mining communities in the area. As well as, the boat docks on the Tanana River near Fairbanks.

The Tanana Valley Railroad, was acquired by the United States Government. Principally the company's terminal facilities.

In 1967, the railroad was transferred to the Federal Railroad Administration, an agency within the newly created US Department of Transportation.

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