Going-to-the-Sun Road - 1/10

Imagine the obstacles faced by the engineers and laborers who constructed the winding Going-to-the-Sun Road more than fifty years ago. Sheer cliffs, short construction seasons, sixty foot snow-drifts, and tons of solid rock make road building across the Continental Divide a unique challenge. When Glacier National Park celebrated the completion of the Going-to-the Sun Road on July 15, 1933, more than two decades of planning and construction had become a spectacular reality.

Early Road - 2/10

Only a few miles of rough wagon roads existed within Glacier National Park when Congress established the park on May 11, 1910. Many people, including the first Park Superintendent, William R. Logan, wanted to build a transmountain road across the park. Supporters argued that a good road system would enable people to reach the interior of the park even if they could not afford the rates of the Great Northern Railroad and its chalets. In addition, the national enthusiasm for good roads and automobiling infected National Park Service officials as much as the rest of the country. However, some raised objections to the road.

A few local businessmen thought it would be inefficient and foolish to construct a road through the park’s rugged mountains when a more dependable route could be constructed around the park’s southern boundary. Eventually, the businessmen were convinced to support the transmountain road because of the additional tourist dollars the road would bring to their local communities. By 1921, when Congress provided the first appropriation specifically for Glacier National Park’s transmountain road, the supporters of the road had clearly won the argument.

Current Road Alignments - 3/10

The Going-to-the-Sun Road crosses Glacier National Park through Logan Pass. Various surveys in the 1910s proposed several different passes for the road, including Swiftcurrent Pass and Gunsight Pass. Other roads were proposed as well. One surveyor planned a road completely around Lake McDonald. Another surveyor suggested a road from West Glacier, along the western shore of Lake McDonald, and up to Waterton Lake. From that main corridor, roads could spur to the left and to the right to reach almost every part of Glacier National Park.

In 1918, the first National Park Service engineer, George Goodwin, planned a route that became the guideline for transmountain road construction in the early 1920s. Goodwin’s proposal was very similar to the current road except that it made a steep climb up Logan Creek using 15 switchbacks before reaching the Continental Divide at Logan Pass.

During the early 1920s Congress provided annual appropriations of $100,000 for construction of the “Transmountain Highway,” as the Going-to-the-Sun Road was first called. With this money, the park signed contracts to begin construction at both ends of the road. In 1924, Glacier’s appropriation increased to $1,000,000 for a three-year road construction program.