. ♪ in the pioneering days, most of the fuel used on the highway work on the railhead at dawson creekrk of pipelines, the alaska highway had its own fueling system. gasoline was pumped through a pipeline to all points on the highway from watson lake. ♪ by october 1943, there was only one gap left in the highway, just east of the alaska-yukon border. on october 13, the remaining gap was only a few hundred feet. there were two crews working toward each other. in this section, the ground stayed frozen all summer long down to a depth of 50 or 60 feet. if the surface cover were disturbed, the ground would quickly defrost, so the contractors used a technique peculiar to the north. gravel and rock was on the ground and carefully spread over. this way insulation was provided to that already added by nature and the frost was permanently locked in. ♪ >> the truck drivers and superintendents and so on felt excitement. they were witnessing the end of five months of toil by many thousands of men. it was 6:00. the sun was down. the bulldozers moved it in, their blades high. the alaska highway was f