As agreed, six months after the end of the Second World War on 1 April 1946, Canada took over the BC and Yukon sections of the Alaska Highway. Maintenance work was initially done by the Canadian Army through the newly formed Northwest Highway System (NWHS) of the Royal Canadian Engineers.
On 1 April 1964, the Canadian Department of Public Works assumed responsibility for the Alaska Highway. Over the following decades, the department launched a substantial improvement plan, targeting the worst sections of the Alaska Highway each year.
Two kilometres north of Teslin is the Teslin River Bridge that spans the Teslin River – a major Yukon river. The 446.95 m (1,466.4 foot) long cantilever bridge is the only original (PRA construction) steel bridge left on the southern Yukon stretch of the Alaska Highway.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, as they approached the Peace River in British Columbia motorists on the Alaska Highway would be stunned to see the soaring towers of the original Peace River Bridge.
The Nisutlin Bay Bridge crosses Teslin Lake, Yukon, at the narrowest point of the bay. This bridge, opened in spring 1956, is the longest bridge on the Alaska Highway (584 m/1,917 feet), and is the third bridge to span this location at the edge of the town of Teslin since the highway was originally built.
The McDonald Creek Bridge, built in 1943, is located along a spectacular section of the Alaska Highway that winds over waterways and around densely forested mountains in British Columbia. Located at Kilometer 628, the bridge is a good example of a design often used by the US Public Roads Administration.
Approaching kilometre 256.1 on the Alaska Highway, motorists are often amazed by the sight of the 24.65 m (94 feet) tall Lower Liard River Bridge looming over the isolated northern British Columbia landscape. Imposing and gracefully symmetrical, the bridge has become a popular postcard and photographic subject.
Against a background of forested hills in northern British Columbia, the graceful three spans of the Hyland River Bridge cross a tributary of the Liard River. The tributary was named for Frank Hyland, who operated trading posts throughout the area in the late 1800s during the Gold Rush.
Millions of people have read “The Ballad of Sam McGee,” that famous poem of the Klondike gold rush written by Robert W. Service (sometimes called “the Bard of the Yukon”). However, most do not know that the real McGee (who outlived his fictional self) had strong connections to part of the Alaska Highway’s Yukon route.