Here's what it's like to visit Whittier, Alaska — the 'town under one roof'

Reddit /u/HyruleanHero1988

Whittier, Alaska, is a small, remote town 60 miles south of Anchorage that is commonly referred to as the "town under one roof."

How small is Whittier? About 217 people live there, and it's accessible only by boat or a one-way, one-lane tunnel.

But the strangest thing about this town is that nearly all of its residents live in the same building, Begich Towers, a Cold War-era army barracks built in 1974. A police station, grocery store, clinic, church, convenience store, and school are all housed within the structure.

Begich Towers also has a bed and breakfast, and guests are welcome to come and observe how life goes on in the near one-structure town. Reddit user HyruleanHero1988 was curious to check out Whittier, so he visited the town during his last vacation. His girlfriend took plenty of photos and she shared them with us along with their observations of the peculiar town.

"This is what you see when you first approach Whittier," he writes. "The 2.5 mile tunnel that you have to pass through to enter the town is one lane only — they switch the direction of travel every 30 minutes. You have to wait at these lights until they let you go."

"This is the entrance to the tunnel."

"Traveling through the tunnel, it makes you feel a little claustrophobic. By the time you're nearing the end, this is definitely a welcome sight."