In 1942, following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, the governments of Canada and the United States initiated the construction of the Alaska Highway to link the U.S. territory of Alaska with the rest of the North American road network. The initial alignment of the highway called for the construction of a curved, banked, wooden trestle bridge across a horseshoe-shaped incised meander of the Kiskatinaw River. Construction of the bridge took only nine months to complete. It has a length of and a nine-degree curve.