Since the time of John Cabot, explorers had imagined the route
as a shortcut to the riches of the Orient, as a pathway to
scientific achievement, as the glory road of Arctic exploration,
and as the first line of defense for the continent of North
America. In the last century, since Norwegian explorer Roald
Amundsen first accomplished the complete transit from 1903 to
1906, vessels from 18 different nations have made more than 100
voyages through the various passages. Even to reach the entrance
to the Northwest Passage requires a difficult and dangerous feat
of navigation. From the east, thousands of enormous icebergs
challenge the way. From the west, vessels reach the passage
through the Bering Strait, where the mass of the polar ice cap
leans its bulk on the north coast of Alaska and has, until the
recent warming of the polar ocean, blocked passage by surface
ships for much of the year. The construction of the DEW Line
brought thousands of military and civilian personnel onto remote
Arctic shorelines in the