The Only City Where All People Live and Work in One Building

Imagine that you don’t have to spend hours in traffic jams on your way to the office. No need to be squeezed in a crowd of commuters at rush hour. To get to the supermarket, you don’t even have to go out. Just press a button in the elevator or walk down the stairs if you’re in an athletic mood. Sound like a miracle? In fact, there’s a town in Alaska whose citizens have everything they need under one roof. It’s Whittier, maybe the strangest town you’ve ever seen.
Whittier is situated on the coast of Prince William Sound in the Gulf of Alaska. All of Whittier’s 220 citizens live in one building; a tower of condominiums. Citizens don’t only live in the same building, but go to work, school, and do their shopping by just pressing different buttons in the elevator. Well, actually there’s one guy, Paul, who thinks he’s special and lives in a camper nearby.
TIMESTAMPS:
No need to go outside 0:51
Why it's not easy to live here 1:32
A paradise for introverts? Not really. 2:13
So why everything you need is under one roof? 3:27
What made these people come to this town 4:22
Why tourists like Whittier 7:25
#strangeplaces #weirdplaces #brightside
Preview photo credit:
Whittier, Alaska, USA. All Whittier residents living in one building: By Daniel Reiner/Shutterstock.com,
Animation is created by Bright Side.
SUMMARY:
- Whittier is situated on the coast of Prince William Sound in the Gulf of Alaska. It was named after the glacier nearby.
- All of Whittier’s 220 citizens live in one building; a tower of condominiums.
- The 14-story building is called Begich towers, and it has pretty much everything you need in life: a police station, 2 supermarkets, town offices, a covered playground, laundry, post office, and a clinic.
- Whittier is isolated from the rest of the world, and lives mostly off natural resources. Fishing is the main activity of the locals, and one of their main income generators.
- Although the climate is more moderate here than deeper in Alaska, thanks to the ocean, winters are very snowy, and summers are rainy.
- You might think that it’s a paradise for introverts, where you can get lost forever. But you’ll hardly find a more interactive and social town than Whittier.
- The town was founded in 1943, and the location was chosen not for its magnificent beauty, but for the natural isolation. The town was built as a defense facility for the US military.
- Several standard houses were built for the staff working in the harbor there, with very simple architecture. Buckner Building was constructed for Engineer Troops.
- The army changed its plans after March 27, 1964, when the Great Alaskan earthquake, also known as the Good Friday Earthquake, occurred.
- After that, the military forces left Whittier, but the people who’d worked in the harbor and other facilities, stayed. In 1969,
- Some Whittier citizens go to work in Anchorage, which is 65 miles (105 km) away. A two-way trip through the tunnel isn’t cheap - $15, and they must buy an annual pass for $500.
- There are 200 apartments in the Begich Towers, and half of them are empty now. Some people own an apartment, but live in a different place, like Anchorage.
Music by Epidemic Sound
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