The Town Under One Roof | Whittier, Alaska

In Whittier, Alaska, one road has closing hours and most residents share a single building. This documentary follows the tunnel, the military history, the 1964 earthquake, the abandoned Buckner Building, and the everyday trade-offs behind the phrase ‘a town under one roof.’ 00:00 The road has closing hours 00:55 One home, one ruin 01:08 A town beyond the mountain 02:18 What ‘one building’ really means 03:20 Why the military came 05:23 The 1964 earthquake 06:04 Damage, abandonment and decay 07:15 Why one building survived as a home 07:40 A teacher’s life in Whittier 08:38 The trade-offs of living close 09:36 A working town 10:20 What makes a building a home 11:11 Thank you for watching Selected media credits: Begich Towers and Whittier aerials — Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0 Whittier harbor and railroad — Laura Alier, CC BY 4.0 Buckner Building — FairbanksMike, CC BY 2.0 Tunnel portal — Paxson Woelber, CC BY 2.0 1942 tunnel ceremony — U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, public domain 1964 earthquake image — U.S. Army / National Archives, public domain Portage Glacier sequence — Paxson Woelber, CC BY 2.0 Anchorage depot video — Medulla Oblongata, CC BY 3.0; source audio omitted Additional Whittier footage credited to Alexander Wood, Travel with Tanya and Simon, Maximo’s Travels, and Big Family Expedition under the Creative Commons license recorded by YouTube. Licensed Whittier marina footage: BlackBoxGuild / Magnific. Full attribution records are preserved with the production package. Modern footage is contextual and is not presented as historical evidence.