Hey guys what's up it's Charlie here and today we're going to be looking at why a
whole city lives in one building are you an introvert if so I'm sure you wish you
could live go to school and go shopping all in the same building well if you
live in the town of Whittier Alaska you can do that that's because in this
amazing city everyone in town lives in one building
today we're going to look at what Whittier is how to get there why
everyone lives under one roof and the difficulties of living in this way but
before we head off why not subscribe and press the notification bell - so where
and what is Whittier will Whittier is actually a city located in the US state
of Alaska and the population is only 214 people so it's not exactly a big place
but everyone in town lives in the same building the building everyone lives in
is called by towers this is a 14 story building completed in 1957 after ww2
inside there are 150 apartments with 2 to 3 bedrooms there's even a school
inside this building and even a safety tunnel under the building in case any of
the residents want to hide out in the event of an apocalypse the building
looks pretty Soviet but inside it's fairly modern inside as well as the
school and apartments is a police station a grocery store a medical clinic
a small convenience store and even a church and it even has its own hotel but
we'll get to that later so for any introverts watching who
dislike going outside this is probably paradise for you many of the residents
of Whittier Alaska actually don't leave the building for weeks on end after all
they have literally anything they could ever need right in the building and
Whittier is actually isolated from the rest of Alaska and the world this means
that they have to live off their own resources and they can't really go
anywhere because there's nowhere to go the closest place of note is Anchorage
Alaska which is nearly 60 miles away most of the time at the children either
play in the inside playground in the building or they go out and fish as that
is the main business of the city there are no buses or trains in this city and
if you want to get around a boat is the best bet
not a car but how exactly do you get to this very isolated city well the first
thing you see when you approach Whittier is a 2.5 mile tunnel you have to pass
through there's only one lane and you have to switch direction of travel every
30 minutes there are also many sets of traffic lights which seem kind of
pointless seeing as the roads are almost always empty driving there is not only
time consuming and claustrophobic in the tunnel it can be dangerous too
Whittier can get very very severe weather conditions in the winter there
is heavy heavy snow and most of the time all of the roads are closed due to the
snow and in the summer it can be very very rainy meaning you can slide around
on the road and even crash so if you want to enter Whittier your best bet is
actually to get a boat after all that is how most of the locals get around but
you're probably asking why does a whole city live in just one building we've all
been to small towns and villages before but most of the time everyone's got
their own home well the main reason everyone lives in the same building is
because of what I mentioned before the weather in the winter the snow can be
around 25 feet that's almost 8 meters of snow not only
that the wind can go up to 70 miles an hour sometimes this means you won't be
able to get too far outside of your house anyway the winters here are
actually so bad it scares bears away Alaska is famous for bears but not in
Whittier as their weather conditions are so severe another reason why the whole
city lives under one roof is because of why the building was made in the first
place it actually wasn't first made as an apartment building the city of
Whittier was actually built as a defense facility for the USA this is also why
it's surrounded by mountains and so isolated from the rest of the world the
only way to get to Whittier at the time it was by the sea so that's why the 2.5
mile tunnel you need to go through to enter Whittier was built the military
base that they built was called buck in a building this building is now
abandoned and very very creeping and nearby to buckner building was hodge
building this was a barracks to hold all of the soldiers stationed in Whittier
but it was later renamed to bears towers name was changed to honor a congressman
from Alaska who went down and a Cessna plane so that's why the whole city lives
there and everything is under one roof but if you think this is some kind of
paradise then you are mistaken along with everything I've just said there are
many difficulties about living in Whittier one difficulty is actually
leaving and entering for residents a trip through the tunnel would cost you
$15 that's why any residents usually buy an annual pass so they literally need to
pay to leave their own City also at night the tunnel is closed so if you
ever want to leave the city you better make sure it's in the day also if you're
an introvert and you think this is the perfect place then you're mistaken
Whittier is a very very sociable town and everyone knows each other inside the
building it's like living in an apartment block but there's no one else
in the entire city so you'd better hope you get along with everyone in the city
as you will live in the same building yikes I can imagine breakups being
pretty awkward also if you're kids having trouble with his homework he can
just knock on his teachers door or if there's an issue in the building which
there nearly never is you can just knock in a policeman's door everyone is very
friendly and goes into each other's apartments all the time if they're
unfriendly turns it's kind of like one big sitcom you never know who you may
run into so this place is very quirky if not cool so you're probably wondering
can I go there well the answer is yes tourism is actually pretty big in
Whittier naturally in the winter with the snow the tourists do not go here but
Whittier is also known for amazing nature and that's what attracts a lot of
tourism in the summer in the some of the worst weather is rain which isn't too
bad and surrounding Whittier is forests waterfalls at glaciers and mountains
after all it is an isolated sitting also many cruises like to stop off in
Whittier as it's such a quirky town inside the building there's also some
touristy shops which only open in the summer also Whittier being a fishing
hotspot attracts a lot of guys who love to fish inside the building is a small
hotel at visitors staying but the rooms get booked up months in advance so cool
now you can also dine in the building at one of their restaurants for example the
Chinese buffet also remember how I said the building had 150 rooms well around
fifth those are empty right now meaning
physicists can't stay in them that's right you can get your very own home in
Whittier if you wish to do so some people who live in larger cities like
Anchorage will buy a vacation apartment in Whittier and the apartments are
pretty cheap in fact you can get one for under fifty thousand dollars you know
what I think I know where I'm gonna go for my next vacation vote in the poll in
the top right corner and you can tell me whether he would travel to Whittier or
not and if you'd like to live there then comment down below telling me why if you
guys want some more amazing videos check out my second channel they'll be linked
to that on screen in a moment but as always thanks for watching
check out some more videos on screen right now leave a like for you enjoyed
and if you haven't already what are you waiting for subscribe to Top 10s