5/29/13 - Ketchikan, AK
Ketchikan is centered on Tongass Avenue. On one side of the avenue, many businesses and homes are built on stilts out over the water, while on the other side they cling to the steep slopes and often have winding wooden staircases leading to their doors.
The downtown area is the main commercial district and contains two large harbors, several cruise ship docks, and many of Ketchikan’s main attractions, including historic Creek Street, a picturesque boardwalk path built over Ketchikan Creek on stilts. Creek Street was Ketchikan's famed red-light district until 1954.
Stedman Bridge is an antique red trestle bridge
Steep terrain challenges engineering and nomenclature alike. Because of the steep hills, some of the streets in Ketchikan are actually wooden stairs.
The wooden streets are named and are maintained by the city just the same as the regular streets.
Once you get to the top of Edmonds Street, it has a great hillside view of lower downtown, the boat harbor and Tongass Narrows
According to a “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” newspaper column in 1967, The Tunnel, completed in 1954, was the only tunnel in the world that could be driven “over, around and through.”
It could also be walked under at one point via a cramped catwalk that was submerged at high tide.
House on one of the hills
Ships at berth
Island Princess
Island Princess
Gravina Island where the airport is located.
Ketchikan from the ship
Ketchikan from the ship