What’s with the Million Dollar Bridge? About fifty miles up the Copper River from Cordova, a steel railroad bridge stands between two glaciers — Childs on one bank, Miles on the other — both of them calving icebergs into the river as it works. Built in 1909–10 at a cost of $1.4 million, which gave it its name, the Miles Glacier Bridge carried copper trains across one of the most hostile spots in Alaska. Engineers were told it couldn’t be done; they raised four great Pennsylvania-truss spans across the gap anyway, racing a federal deadline through sub-zero winters. The Good Friday earthquake of 1964 knocked one span off its pier, where it hung at an angle for forty years before being repaired. It still stands — the iconic landmark of Cordova’s copper age.
People were here long before the copper. The Eyak made the Copper River Delta and this corner of Prince William Sound their home, fishing the same runs that feed the town today and trading along the coast between their Tlingit and Alutiiq neighbors. The first cannery opened on Orca Inlet in 1889 — before the railroad, before the town — proof that the fish came first and have stayed longest. Cordova’s deepest story is not copper but salmon, and the people who have always known it.
Why People Visit Cordova
Cordova rewards travelers who want the real, working edge of Alaska: a fishing fleet at the dock, glaciers and a great river delta within reach, world-class birding and salmon, and a town you have to make an effort to reach. Bring rain gear and time.
