Glenn Highway

Glenn Highway
Glenn Highway highlighted in red
Route information
Length	179 mi^[1] (288 km)
Tourist routes	Glenn Highway
Major junctions
West end	AK-1 (East 5th & 6th Avenues) Anchorage near Merrill Field
East end	AK-1 / AK-4 (Richardson Highway) in Glennallen

Location
Country	United States
State	Alaska

Highway system
Alaska Routes Interstate Scenic Byways

The Glenn Highway (part of Alaska Route 1) is a highway in the U.S. state of Alaska, extending 179 miles (288 km) from Anchorage near Merrill Field to Glennallen on the Richardson Highway. The Tok Cut-Off is often considered part of the Glenn Highway, for a total length of 328 miles (528 km).

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Route description

The longest stretch of freeway in Alaska runs mostly along the Glenn Highway, beginning in north Anchorage, continuing onto the Parks Highway at the interchange of the two roads, and ending in the city limits of Wasilla, for a total of approximately 38 miles (61 km). This 38-mile (61 km) portion of the Glenn Highway is the only road access to Anchorage for most of the state (with the exception of the Kenai Peninsula on the Seward Highway), and as such is the main traffic corridor for Anchorage's suburbs in the Chugiak-Eagle River and Mat-Su areas. The highest point on the highway is 3,332 feet (1,016 m) at Eureka Summit, which sits on the divide between the Chugach and Talkeetna mountain ranges.^[2]

History

The highway originated as the Palmer Road in the 1930s, to reach the agricultural colony at Palmer. During World War II it was completed to Glennallen as part of a massive program of military road and base building that also resulted in the Alaska Highway,^[3] and connected Anchorage to the continental highway system.^[4]

It is named for Captain Edwin Glenn (1857–1926), leader of an 1898 U.S. Army expedition to find an Alaska route to the Klondike gold fields^[5] (the eventual Richardson Highway). The highway was paved in the 1950s.

Paleontology

The "Talkeetna Mountains Hadrosaur" specimen was discovered in 1994 in a quarry being excavated for road material.^[6] That fall, excavation began, and was resumed in the summer of 1996.^[6] The quarry is near the Glenn Highway, approximately 150 miles northeast of Anchorage.^[7] This specimen was the first associated skeleton of an individual dinosaur discovered in all of Alaska.^[8]

Interstate Highway System

Interstate A-1

Location	Palmer to Fairbanks
Length	323.69 mi (520.93 km)
Existed	1976–present

Glenn Highway is part of the unsigned part of the Interstate Highway System as Interstate A-1.^[9]^[10]

Major intersections

County	Location	mi	km	Destinations	Notes
Municipality of Anchorage		0	0.0	Airport Heights Drive	Western terminus. Roadway continues west as 5th Avenue
				Bragaw Street
				Boniface Parkway
				Turpin Street	Eastbound exit and entrance
				Muldoon Road
				Arctic Valley Road	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
				D Street
				Eagle River Loop Road
				Artillery Road
				Eklutna Park Drive
				South Birchwood Loop Road
				North Birchwood Loop Road
				Voyles Boulevard
				Lake Hill Drive
				Paradis Lane	No access westbound to Paradis Lane
				Old Glenn Highway	Eastbound entrance and exit
				Eklutna Village Road
				Old Glenn Highway	No access to Old Glenn Highway eastbound
Matanuska-Susitna	Knik River			SFC James Bondsteel Bridge of Honor across the Knik River
	Knik River			Knik River Access
	Gateway			AK-3 north (George Parks Highway) – Wasilla, Fairbanks
	Gateway			Northern end of freeway
	Palmer			Palmer-Wasilla Highway
Unorganized	Glennallen	179	288	AK-1 / AK-4 (Richardson Highway) – Valdez, Tok
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi Incomplete access

Gallery

The Glenn Highway on the right side of the Matanuska River and Kings Mountain at mile 76 (km 123).
Matanuska Glacier seen from the Glenn Highway at mile 102 (km 164)
Gunsight Mountain and the Glenn Highway near mile 129 (km 208)
Mount Drum and the Glenn Highway near mile 170 (km 274)
Granite Peak from Glenn Highway
Mount Wickersham and Matanuska Glacier from mile 101 of the highway
Amulet Peak and Matanuska River at Mile 94

Footnotes

^ Google (December 28, 2013). "Glenn Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved December 28, 2013.
^ The Milepost, 59th edition, pg. 322, ISBN 978-1-892154-21-7
^ "Alaska History and Cultural Studies - America's Territory - Overland Routes Develop". Archived from the original on 2009-09-12. Retrieved 2010-04-15.
^ "Travel Alaska's Glenn Highway with BEARFOOT Guides - Explore Alaska's Matanuska River and Glacier on this National Scenic Byway through the Mountains. Maps Included".
^ Alaska Yukon Place Names, James W. Phillips author, University of Washington Press (1973)
^ ^a ^b "Introduction," in Pasche and May (2001); page 220.
^ "Location and Geologic Setting," in Pasche and May (2001); page 220.
^ "Abstract," in Pasche and May (2001); page 219.
^ Federal Highway Administration, National Highway System Viewer Archived 2007-08-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 2007.
^ Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Dwight D. Eisenhower Interstate Routes Archived 2009-07-27 at the Wayback Machine, April 2006

References

Pasch, A. D., K. C. May. 2001. Taphonomy and paleoenvironment of hadrosaur (Dinosauria) from the Matanuska Formation (Turonian) in South-Central Alaska. In: Mesozoic Vertebrate Life. Ed.s Tanke, D. H., Carpenter, K., Skrepnick, M. W. Indiana University Press. Pages 219–236.