almost endless darkness in the short summers a swamp like morass not too bad for caramel or polar bears but no place for human beings yet this roof of the world holds a stark menace to our country to our very existence the menace lies in the basic new fact of our time that no two nations on earth are any longer cut off from each other by geography we all live at the edge of the same ocean the air ocean which enveloped the globe and in the air age geography has new meanings for the safety of the american and canadian people what was once the impassable arctic now provides the quickest routes for attack from a wide sector of europe and a base set by the nightmare of this threat the american government acted with the advice of some of the country's best scientists brought together at mit's same lincoln laboratories experimental installations like this one were built and tested in northern alaska by the western electric company guided by the successful test the nation's leaders decided on a tremendous undertaking this was to build with the cooperation of canada a radar early warning line north of the arctic circle starting at the northernmost tip of alaska it would stretch three thousand miles across the continent to baffin island opposite greenland distant early warning line they named two lines it became at the proposal to create such a line in the distant the united states department of defense faced a major question to what organization should our country assign the due line mission the answer was given by the secretary of defense and requesting the bell system to take on the job under us air force supervision the bell system with its integrated planning development engineering manufacturing and law just take organization as uniquely qualified  undertake this project which is so vital to the safety of the country the contract went to the western electric company the bell systems manufacturing and supply unit and international headquarters was swiftly organized host of special consultants called in to help start work on a dozen front wherever it would help speed up the project some contracts were left the contract called for the new line to be delivered within thirty two months impossible some said there was no time to lose recruiters were dispatched to every part of the country visited and of the belt system seeking out the right people by the right job jack jennings of dayton ohio commercial service engineer for the ohio bell telephone company signed up for a new job as an installation department don gores of milwaukee wisconsin installation supervisor for the western electric company said goodbye to his friends and took off to the gum odelein section three from all over america they came across a section of the technical competence the scientific imagination and the management know how which go into creating reliable telephone service all told one thousand bell system men and women and listed the servant project five seven to  for the new line undertake in the same headquarters building the u s air force established a project office vision able the air force to work closely with the project supervisors and provide prompt decisions to meet the exact by now the critical decisions as to exactly where the new line station should go were nearly finished aerial photographs of the proposed site areas were analyzed by a skilled photo interpretation meant so that tentative site plans could be drawn now men had to go north and check the tentative plans on the spot it was february the worst possible time of year to go to the arctic these were the eighteen they took off from snow covered fields in the north with a few all important tools and instruments and the bare necessities for a living they came down into the isolation of a pinpoint  markdown that they checked the educated guesses of the photo interpretation meant exploring the beach approaches conducted tests to be sure each side would be well suited for placing the new radar and radio system as being designed for the line and mark the sights to guide the construction crew as they completed their missions site by site three thousand mile long strip somewhere north of the arctic circle began to shed it timeless anonymity to take on an historic identity line close on the heels of the sighting teams came the advance construction crews first  with that much they made camp set up radio communications and cleared the snow from the frozen inlet to make a nice big big enough for wheeled planes to land on the bigger planes brought in a bigger tractor more men and supplies but at some sites the wind kept piling up the snow so fast that a small trac then the only way to get a bigger tractor in was to drop it by parachute the first time they tried it didn't work one way they learned on the do line was from mistakes they had lost one tractor this way they wouldn't lose any more they knew now how to do it right finally they had ice caps wide enough and long enough for the biggest cargo planes the air force c one twenty four the masters made aviation history with those icelandic they brought the construction crews what they had to have the big machines that could take and pile and handle in the hall and could stay on top in the running battle with the drifting snow and above all i could work gravel digging and moving gravel is the start of just about everything in the arctic without it you can't build roads permanent airstrips or building foundation there was teamwork too between nations throughout the project the us air force on the royal canadian air force maintained a cordial productive lives on engineering problems how do they work out quickly decisions made on ten thousand and one vital detail had to develop new techniques for building the do line structures under arctic condition telephone laboratories the all important electronic experimental work was nearly finished as rapidly as possible after development work was finished the actual manufacturing on assembly of the electronic equipment was pushed intensively procurement was another mammoth every item that would be needed in the arctic from radar antennas to paperclip had to be anticipated and ordered more than one hundred thirteen thousand do a lot purchase orders went out from western electric and its subcontractors to more than forty six hundred different business enterprises located in every state of the union every province of god of the substantial number of the suppliers the job of transporting the material called for a plan continental in scope it would include a west coast sea live out of long beach in seattle another on the east coast from philadelphia meanwhile the canadian and american commercial aircraft of all types and sizes were bearing the full burden of supplies for the early construction along the lines they flew but by all odds was the greatest commercial airlift in history all together aircraft carried thirty thousand tons of machinery and supplies to do line sites before the ice landings dips off and in may and june of that first year nothing stopped the airways planes were lost and courageous men gave their lives but the supply of the construction work  in the camps of the construction contractors living conditions were primitive but already the crews were changing the face of that far north country the eskimos too were recruited and they did a good job the crews build roadways developed water supply sources laid down building foundations and made the beaches ready for the sea designed to put it in the right spot on the beach when it realigned destination supplies of petroleum oil and lubricants build up a car on a car at long beach on the west coast selling elvia in the east in june they started loading on the west coast petroleum first then the ships went on to seattle at seattle they loaded for a solid month halifax loading for the east coast sea live continuing for a month plus ten days the ships were operated by the military sea transport service of the united states navy onboard would be soldiers of the s army transportation car intensively trained to handle the unloading of the ships and deliveries to the beaches on the new line that would be no going down to the store for a loaf of bread or a package of nails or anything else everything had to be transported there and you'd be hard put to name an item that wasn't stowed in the ship's the west coast sea lift was to be income boys the slower ships left seattle for the others following a few days later it was a long voy