The Million Dollar Bridge and A Road Trip to Child’s Glacier

Saturday, June 26

The Copper River Delta is a 60-mile arc of vast wetlands in the Chugach National Forest, all woven around six glacial river systems with massive runoffs … truly a paradise for those who cherish wildlife and wilderness.

At the advice of many of the locals we met in Cordova, we decided to rent a car and under sunny skies drove to Child’s Glacier, a 48-mile ride from Cordova along the Copper River Highway through the Delta. With binoculars and cameras in hand, we were awestruck by the spectacular pure beauty surrounding us.

Twelve miles out of town we traveled past Cordova’s Mudhole Airport (yes, that’s its real name) … and the road turned to gravel from that point on, until you reach the Million Dollar Bridge.

Back in 1910, the Guggenheim brothers and JPMorgan wanted to connect the railway to the Kennecott Mine, a major copper mine that they jointly owned, so they paid … you guessed it … a million dollars to build what since has been known as the Million Dollar Bridge. The bridge collapsed in the Good Friday 1964 Earthquake (more about that later!) and was only rebuilt in 2004 … at a cost of $19 million ... to basically connect to nowhere.

There’s a turnoff just before the bridge that takes you to a viewing platform 400 yards across the river from Child’s Glacier. Child’s is an intensely active glacier with a 300-foot high face that was an awesome sight to both see and hear. Every few minutes you could tell it was in motion when you heard it begin to rumble. And when the rumbling escalated into what sounded like huge thunderclaps, we knew to watch the face for massive pieces of ice calving into the water below.

The park signage particularly warns you to stay on the viewing platform and avoid the shore opposite the glacier, which often has waves over 10-feet high crashing on its banks from tsunamis caused by the calving. Of course Roland ignored that warning, grabbed his tri-pod, and scrambled down to the shore to try for the perfect shot of the calving in action … unfortunately no major calving but the good news is I didn’t lose my captain to a Child’s Glacier tsunami.

Driving back to Cordova that afternoon we stopped along the way to photograph more of the scenery, including a trumpeter swan and a female moose we spotted grazing in the marshlands. What a delightful day trip!