In 1915,  President Woodrow Wilson authorized funds for the construction of the Alaska Railroad.  A "tent city" sprang up in the wilderness at the mouth of Ship Creek, and soon swelled to a population of over 2,000.  On July 9, 1915, the Anchorage townsite auction was held, and over 600 lots in a fixed grid were sold for approximately $150,000.  Although the area had been known by various names, in the same year the U.S. Post Office Department formalized the use of the name "Anchorage", and despite some protests the name stuck.

During the thirties, Anchorage rebounded from then loss of population and industry it had suffered during World War I.  Between 1940 and 1951, Anchorage's population expanded exponentially from 3,000 to 47,000, and so did the cost of living.  The "Boom Town" of Anchorage also experienced an unfortunate rise in crime during this tumultuous growth period, a problem the city would fight for decades.  The long awaited completion of the road between Seward and Anchorage along the Turnagain Arm was completed in the early 1950's by the Alaska Road Commission, opening the Kenai Peninsula to motor vehicle traffic.

The decade of the 1960's began on the high note of Alaska's attaining statehood in 1959.  However, another less propitious event dominated Anchorage's energy during these years.  On March 27, 1964, a natural disaster of incredible proportions struck Anchorage and Southcentral Alaska: the Good Friday earthquake.  This earthquake measure 8.6 on the Richter scale, the largest ever recorded in North America and, because Anchorage lay only 80 miles for the epicenter, damage to structures ran to the hundreds of millions of dollars.  This disaster printed itself indelibly on an entire generation of Anchorage residents, who still vividly remember the tribulations and loss of life brought on by what is simply known as "The Big One."