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The Alaskan Oil Pipeline

Modern Marvels

Season 5Episode 16Aired 1998-01-01
The Alaskan Oil Pipeline

The Alaskan Oil Pipeline

In 1973, a desperate America, starved by an OPEC embargo, began construction on an 800-mile lifeline for its insatiable oil hunger. We’ll examine this technological triumph, built over impenetrable mountains and tundra, where temperatures drop to 75 below zero. We also study its impact on a fragile ecological system.