Because of its remote geography of islands and mountains, most of southeast Alaska cannot be reached by roads. A few cities like Haines, Skagway and Hyder connect to some highways. Other towns are reached only by planes and boats, and that is how supplies are shipped in and out.

People need to move around with the world outside of where they live. The state of Alaska operates a ferry system. This system is called the Alaska Marine Highway. Large ferry ships carry tourists, residents, and vehicles. There is one ferry system in Southeast Alaska and another in Southwestern Alaska. These ferry systems don't connect with each other and so you need to be careful of which one you get on. If you want to travel to Washington State on the Alaska Marine Highway any of the ferries in the Southeastern system can take you all the way to Bellingham, Washington. All of this fancy system of ferries began in 1963. The first three ferries of the Alaska fleet were named the Malaspina, Matanuska and the Taku. Each one cost 4.5 million dollars.

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