Why Anchorage is America's Most OP City 

I just uploaded a 19-minute long companion video to this one covering the modern-day cold war and conflict between Greece and Turkey to Nebula, here; bit.ly/3egkMrS It's a part of my Modern Conflicts series, an exclusive to Nebula series of sensitive and controversial conflicts ranging from the Gulf War, the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, the Armenia-Azerbaijan War and many others. The best way to get access to all of these videos along with dozens of other creator projects is through the CuriosityStream/Nebula bundle deal, and best of all with the current holiday deal, you can get 1 entire year of both Nebula and CuriosityStream with thousands of documentaries to entertain yourself with forever, for only $11.59 a year, here; curiositystream.com/?coupon=reallifelore

Russia didn't necessarily sell Alaska just for money. Russia was concerned that Britain would be able to easily capture the land through Canada at the time so figured selling it to the US would stop Britain which it kind of did but then the US became a bigger problem than Britain in the long term.

I am surprised you didn't talk about the fact that Alaska provides 60% of the domestically produced seafood for the US. All of that goes through Anchorage. Or the fact that Alaska has more freshwater than the rest of the USA combined. Edit: 1.) So it has been pointed out that a significant amount of seafood is shipped directly from the ports where it is caught without going through Anchorage. So it was incorrect to say "All". 2.) I was just wrong on the freshwater numbers. The total freshwater area of 49 states (excluding AK) is around 170 million square miles. The total freshwater area of Alaska is 94 million square miles, so just over half the rest of the USA combined (this includes the areas of the great lakes that the USA claims). The next state with the highest total surface area is Michigan with around 40 million square miles and it falls off pretty hard from there with Florida with around 12 million square miles.

Anchorage resident from 1971-2011. I remember driving out to a hillside near the airport with my parents and watching the first 747 to our little burg touchdown at the airport in the early 70's. It was a big deal.

I almost completely failed to realize how close some countries are to each other just because I've always looked at a standard 2D map instead of a globe.

As someone who lived in Anchorage for 15+ years it’s true that the summers are amazing, but you get tired of the winters real quick. It’s one of the most gorgeous places in the world, but it can feel somewhat removed from the rest of the United States.

I can't believe the Devs are gonna buff Anchorage in the upcoming global warming patch when it's already near the top of the meta and players have been begging for a nerf for years, literally unplayable.

You know the funny thing about the cargo air spot is that Alaska is consistently not included in free shipping despite that fact.

One thing you didn't mention for Alaska downsides (and Anchorage in particular) is their supply chain, they produce only a small portion of their food locally and are completely dependent on supplies being brought up by the ship load. Anchorage's port kind of sucks because Cook Inlet is a shallow silt bed, which requires constant dredging to maintain functional operations. This means they are extremely vulnerable in the case of a disaster (think another mega earthquake, a war or any other large supply chain interrupting event), in the case of their supply chain being cut, the non-subsistence lifestyle people (or at any rate, non-preppers with no wilderness skills) would be facing starvation in a matter of a couple months, possibly weeks.

As someone who grew up in Anchorage, I can definitely attest that while it sucks to live in, its strategic importance has always been a huge point of emphasis. The military actually makes up a big part of its economy as the Army and Air Force have a huge joint base just north of downtown. And the fact it's still such an important cargo hub is cool. My wife and I actually lived in a house that was just east of one of the runways and I would see 747s all the time. I even caught a picture of the Antonov An-225 (the largest airplane in the world) right above our house. I don't miss much about Anchorage (moved out of Alaska in 2019) but I always tell people that it's such an important place even today.

With the Russian airspace now closed to Western aircrafts, Anchorage could once again play a role in connecting East Asia to the Western world

I have live here in Anchorage since 07 and work in the air cargo industry for 10 years from loadmaster to load control. We are getting tons of demands and had increase 3x the traffic since I left In the industry couple years ago. Amazon is now also opening a key point sorting hub here as they are opening their doors to asia international market. I wish I have listened to this pilot that I always fly with back in the day. He told me that Pilots will be shortage and on demand in the next 10 years and he encourage me to get my license and earn my hours. He told me this 4 years ago and now it's happening!!!

As nature-lover visiting from California, I found nature in Alaska--even in the outskirts of Anchorage in the winter--to be as exotic as the tropics and stunningly beautiful but chilling to the bone.

It’s quite interesting how cities such as Anchorage that we generally don’t discuss in real life are so important to governments around the world. Kind of makes you feel better if you got transferred to some of these places for work because you know that you are a part of something much bigger than yourself.

I was born and raised in Anchorage, however I was a military brat so after a certain age I eventually lived in 7 different states, many cities...I have to say the ONLY one I love and miss and adore is Anchorage.

I lived in Anchorage back in the late 70s for 5 years, I used to love watching and hearing all the 747's taking off from the international airport, most were cargo planes but a lot were KAL JAL and the like full of passengers. The sound and sight of those massive planes always got my attention.

I really appreciate your work. Knowledge is a blessing.

For those interested, russia didnt really sell alaska for the $$ . I mean technically yea, but the real reason was they were scared Britain would take it over through Canada. So they thought they'd be better off with America having it than Britain. Worked fine for the time, but a century later.....

Anchorage has the very unique blend of being a mountain and a coast city. I love the grit of this city. The salt air with the mountain backdrop, throw in some Northern lights, and well, THAT'S a city!

Just found this channel, it's straightforward, GREAT and needed/of value❤

Very interesting video! I would have never guessed this in a million years. Thanks!

Keeping records, first title, “Why Anchorage is America’s most OP City”

As an Alaskan, I always thought that Alaska, while fascinating, was never going to be a big place for the USA. It was always that state that got brought up when talking about the American purchase of the land, and then never again. It was always this quaint piece of land that I lived in. Now that I hear this, I think that it could be in my lifetime when Alaska becomes one of the biggest places in the world, and I could be there to say what it was like before, so that's really nice to hear.

Some may not agree but the weather in Anchorage is very favorable to take offs 12 months a year because you get more lift from cold air on the runway than warm air. It is rare to have a summer day high more than 70 F.

It's good as a u.s. citizen to hear Alaska may be playing a significant part in the world and be a powerhouse in global geopolitical terms but also sad to see the earth changing. I wish there was a way to be better stewards of the earth and still have access to the benefits of alaska.

It's not just that planes can refuel in Anchorage as they go by, it's that you can fill a plane full with goods going to multiple destinations, send it and others to Alaska, and then fill up planes with goods from many sources to get to their final destinations. So the same flight into, say, Mexico City could have goods shipped in from both Tokyo and London.

I didn't know Alaska was so important. Interesting.

This is really a very nice and informative video. Thanks for sharing.

Well done video. One minor correction, at timestamp 6:20, when listing the time it takes to fly from Anchorage to other major cities, you used the wrong comparison operator. i.e. “> 6 hours” is interpreted as “greater than 6 hours”. Using “< 6 hours” is what you’re looking for.

I knew Alaska was important to control due to its numerous mineral and chemical resources. But I didn’t fathom how crucial it was on a global scale from its location. Very informative video!

A sign I commonly saw while I lived in Alaska was "Alaska- The last foreign nation still friendly to Americans". Living in Alaska really is like living in a different country. So often we felt disconnected from the larger issues affecting the lower 48. It certainly is remote, but that comes with its benefits.

amazing work. thank you for the education...

Thank you for this video. So many people have no clue that FedEx, UPS, USPS and DHL all have huge hubs here. It boggles me when people tell me they can't ship something from the East Coast of the US to Alaska. The "reasons" vary from company to company for not being able to ship to Alaska. Funny part is that Amazon is an Alaskan's best friend because Amazon will gladly ship almost anything we need.

Anchorage is a city that has always been fascinating for me. Living in the US Midwest, Alaska seems distant, far away, almost like a foreign country. Its role in the future and in popular media (like Fallout) makes it a city destined for greatness Alaska is a state I'd love to visit.

Very informative and quality content

brother your videos are exceptional great job

This was a mind-expanding vidya. Thank yoo.

After flying up to Alaska, I noticed how busy the airport really was. I saw a few large airports in other parts of the states, but Anchorage had an incredible airport with all sorts of interior decorations and shops, it was incredible.

As someone who’s an aviation nut that lives in Anchorage, this video makes me extremely proud of my home town. That said, international travel ending after the fall of the USSR deeply saddens me, considering how much of a nuisance it is now to try and fly internationally, having to fly down to the lower 48s and then go back the way I came.

What an incredibly educational and interesting video, massive props to the creator. As someone who consumes a lot of political/history content on RU-vid, I’m surprised I haven’t come across this channel. Subscribed 👍

Nice presentation. Thanks! One point however: the > symbols used at around 6.36 actually mean "greater than" not "less than".

One interesting thing about Anchorage is the weather. You might think that a city so far north would have horrific winters. But because it is coastal, Anchorage is actually more temperate than you might think. Of course, winters are cold, with snow, but the temperatures do not drop to terribly low levels like they do in the interior. Likewise, summers are pretty moderate.

I want to add to this. Throughout the interior of the state there is a river system that rivals that of the Mississippi with gold, copper, fertile land, and rare earth all along its banks. Its the Yukon. My hometown of Fairbanks used to export lumber by way of this river and honestly we have the fastest growing farmer population in this country. We have abundance in resources, arable land, and easy transport. I honestly believe Alaska may become one of America's Top 3 power centers by the end of the century.

Anchorage fun fact: Anchorage came from the name of a hardwood store operated from a boat and refers to a place where a ship can lay anchor. Let's be honest, our missile reaching Alaska would be the best thing to happen to Alaska. Because at long last, they'll never have to worry about the Alaskan Bullworm ever again. And if it hits Sarah Palin...even better Also, Greenland isn't part of the EU. It used to be in the then European Community between 1973 and 1985 but withdrew and is only associated with it under an overseas association decision. They chose to leave because they wanted to regain control of their fishing

great video. will sign up

Alaska is like that kid who was considered worthless growing up, but ended up super successful in the future

A Battle of Achorage scenario all of a sudden seems entirely plausible. Damn Fallout, you scary!

Amazing presentation . great jop❤😮

This would be a fun video to update given the changing geopolitical situation.

The role of Anchorage seems to have been similar to the Gander International Airport. When nonstop flights from America to Europe were difficult, the Gander International Airport acted as an entrance to America. Really interesting. Nice video!

I visited Anchorage once in 09. I wondered why the airport was so large relative to the city itself. Thanks for the video.

So Wise , Thank You

I just went to Alaska. It was life changing.

I was stationed in Anchorage from 2016-2020 and the city is quite small for how many people and cargo comes through there. It also has a lot of problems with drugs and homelessness. Anchorage is close to a lot of major shipping hubs but actually living there is still very isolating. It takes a toll on your mental state especially during the winter

14:54 Greenland is actually not part of the European Union. It is a highly autonomous territory of Denmark, and although Denmark is part of the EU, Greenland isn't. In fact, Greenland voted to leave what was then the European Community back in 1985, largely due to their desire to keep their fishing waters and other natural resources away from the EC/EU.

Anchorage is gorgeous. I lived in/ am moving back to Fairbanks next week. Anchorage is close enough that its easy to get to, but also far enough south that the winter is significantly less miserable so its a nice get away.

Love Anchorage. Always wanting to go back. Love it in the winter.

In addition to that, Alaska has more fresh water resources than any other US state & one of the lowest utilization rates, too. And as the world gets warmer, Alaska's growing season also expands. Add onto that the fact that Alaska's fisheries are some of the most sustainably managed on Earth & you've got a pretty good location going forward into an uncertain world. Their only serious drawback is just how much they rely on imports right now. 50 years ago, Alaska grew almost half of its own food. Right now, it only grows 5% of its own food. Imho this is a dangerous over-reliance on trade & should be fixed as soon as possible.

Those northern shipping routes would seriously rock the worlds of some of the towns and villages along the northwest coast of Alaska. Just imagine Nome being a boomtown again.

The stop-motion animation is great! I almost want to watch the movie.

Thank you! Love this channel. Here is a question I trust you will answer better than others. Why is Alaska so violent? If not for that it would be a great place to live.

I lived in Alaska 17 years. Anchorage was basically like a larger, more boring version of Fairbanks with a bunch of strip clubs and higher crime rate. Usually the winters were a little more mild in Anchorage but that wasn’t always the case. Living there sounded terrible to me because houses in Anchorage were ridiculously expensive, so people would save money by living out in Palmer or Wasilla and commuting in on that single highway (which gets choked with traffic every day at rush hour). The solution one politician tried to fund was a bridge over the Knik Arm (labeled by the media a “bridge to nowhere”) which certainly would have helped commuter time but been ridiculously expensive. Alaska doesn’t have much in the way of mass transit at all, but building a light rail between Anchorage and the Matanuska Valley would help things immeasurably for people. The issue is Alaska doesn’t have much money, being overly reliant on the unstable oil market, tourism revenue (which has been really hurt in recent years), and federal money to pay for things, so infrastructure improvements up there (outside of paving roads) rarely get priority.

Russia is probably regretting their decision to sell Alaska.

My boyfriend works in air freight/cargo and we’re hoping to move to Alaska, this was great stuff it learn!

Interesting content, well-researched, but the constant hyper narration quickly begins to grate. This is why good documentaries have moments of silence, interviews, etc to break up the monotony of narration.

When I was a kid in 1975, our family took a Pan Am flight on a Boeing 747 nonstop from little Fairbanks to New York City -Kennedy Intl. it was a refueling stop of a daily flight between Tokyo and NYC. It seemed so strange to get on that huge plane nearly full of people in such a small town.

Anchorage Airport was, at some point, the busiest airport in the world. I used to work the cargo flights during that time. It's a very interesting place. The Smithsonian channel has a pretty good documentary called Ice Airport Alaska.

6:35 Did anyone else notice how they were all supposed to be less than signs but are actually greater than signs?

Quality content

I remember London - Tokyo flighs via Anchorage when I was a kid. Took bloody ages!

At 6:31, every "less than ___ hours" label uses the "GREATER THAN" symbol. When you say "X is less than 6" and display it as an equation, the thin end of the symbol should be pointing to the smaller value (in this case, the invisible X) and the wide open end should be pointing to the larger value (in this case, the 6 hour upper limit).

I love your geography videos especially about North America

As a resident of Anchorage, it's great however it's a lot like living in a small town but you have urbanized areas reminding you it is a major city.

When I think of Anchorage, Alaska I think of the Battle of Anchorage in the Fallout lore. It was a fierce battle between the Chinese and United States that lasted from late 2066 to early 2077. I think the war as a whole was called the Resource War and was fought by the global superpowers at the time. It was World War 3 essentially over the dwindling supply of fossil fuels. This was quickly followed by the Great War in October 2077 and lasted a whopping 2 hours. There was an exchange of possibly thousands of nuclear warheads all over the globe and then it was over. Everyone was a loser.

You found so much authentic footage here, well done! The shot of Merrill Field at 6:40ish was particularly cool to see.

This channel is the best.

Due to most European Countries having to avoid flying over Russia, I think there's going to be a lot of flights that would make fuel stops at anchorage if Europe wants to go to East Asia, Australia, Southeast Asia, etc.

Spectacular video. I love the 3D globe models you use to show complicated shipping and flight routes across the globe. Really helps put those far away places into perspective!

very very cool video thank you

Came here for the Alaska info, but ngl - Nebula seems way better than YT. 😆

10:11 Correct me if i'm wrong, but surely Honolulu, Hawaii would be a better layover between India and the US West Coast? Edit: I looked it up, turns out it's not even close! New Dehli-Anchorage-Los Angeles is ~7,700 miles New Dehli-Honolulu-Los Angeles is around ~9,800 miles! Map distortion is wild.

It would also be interesting if you would cover anchorages problems. For example, anchorage is hemmed in by the inlet to the west/south, the chugach mountain range to the east, and a military airforce base to the north. So it doesn't have an option to grow much larger. There's also our port which requires a significant amount of dredging, despite there being an option for a deep water port on fire island. We have the second highest tides in the entire world. The '64 earthquake was a 9.4, and is almost guaranteed to happen again due to our position directly on top of a fault line. And our absolutely insane rape and crime statistics. There's also the problem that our capitol is I accessible to the majority of our states population, and whenever there's a vote to move it to Anchorage suspicious happenings occur and power outages that limit voting. And as a fun side note, you should check out recent news about our mayor.

Will be buying the next family vacation home in anchorage in the next 12 month ls after seeing this and speaking to my parents Friend who is a US Admiral (he confirmed all of this over dinner). Looking at underperforming docks or docks going into bankruptcy to purchase. Very insightful!!

Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.

As someone who lives in anchorage it is very interesting and cool to learn about our future economic importance

By the logic applied here, either Nome or Kotzebue have the potential to become one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. it is RIGHT on the bering strait, with a nice large bay providing a natural harbor right next the that super-critical choke-point for both routes.

10:02. Great video, but Dubai is marked on the wrong location on the map

This video has aged even better than expected, as Anchorage is now an even more popular layover location for cargo flights, due to many flight paths from Europe to Asia being rerouted close to the North Pole with the closure of Russian airspace. It's a shame that Anchorage only has one direct transatlantic passenger destination (Frankfurt) - there may be even more untapped potential for passenger service not just for tourism to Alaska, but also to shave time off itineraries connecting Europe and the Pacific islands/Oceania.

Another thing that makes Alaska so important is the fact that it incorporated more that half of the U.S.A. coast.

Costs to ship on the water would be significantly lower from bypassing the Panama Canal and sailing north around Alaska not only because of less fuel costs but if I remember correctly each cargo ship traveling through the Panama Canal pays at least a $100,000 fee for using the canal. That’s a lot of savings when added to the fuel and time being saved.

Truly fascinating. Thankyou =)

nice ski equiped dc3 shot. Now that's a rare sight

Lived in Anchorage my whole life, posting from there now (nice, warm 19 degrees outside.) It's true that there's a massive amount of potential in Anchorage and Alaska in general. We're sitting on huge natural resources and shipping potential. However, most of it is untapped. Shipping and air cargo are really a pretty small piece of our economy. Especially next to the oil companies, which also aren't what they used to be. It would be awesome to see things rebound someday, but there's a lot of 'ifs' involved.

This was an incredibly well-made video. I'm a long-time fan of RealLifeLore, thanks for pumping out so much high quality content! Merry Christmas!

the amount of research, ideas and knowledge about this video are spectacular.. 👏👏👏

The less than symbol is < not > Just thought I would clear that up.

I’m born and raised in LA County. I’ve always been very fascinated with Alaska, especially Anchorage. Partly because it is so different from where I currently live, but also because of stuff like this. It is a decently sized city in the middle of absolute nowhere. The only reason it really exists is because of the trade routes. I also find it to be beautiful, due to its location. I found this to be a very interesting video about the city, and it’s interesting to see that it could end up being one of the most important cities in the world pretty soon. Great video as always RLL.

10:04 love how Dubai decided to move their city from the UAE to India! so innovative

Lived in Glennallen, AK for 8 years. Great place and the scenery is amazing... but driving 3 hours to anywhere and having to rent a room to watch a movie in a movie theater gets old. not to mention 9 months of winter lol.

I love how so many videos taking on this subject matter and eventually it talking about the economic benefits of the icebergs melting!