Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Juneau, AK

Juneau is the capital of Alaska and a consolidated city-borough, a unified municipality formed on July 1, 1970, when the City of Juneau merged with the City of Douglas and the surrounding Greater Juneau Borough.

The 2020 census counted 32,255 residents in the City and Borough of Juneau, making it the third-most populous city in Alaska after Anchorage and Fairbanks and the sixth-least populous state capital in the United States.

At 3,254.70 square miles, Juneau is the second-largest municipality in the United States by area and is larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware.

Juneau was named for gold prospector Joe Juneau, who with Richard Harris found gold at Gold Creek in 1880, and a miners' meeting on December 14, 1881, chose the name Juneau for the settlement; its Tlingit name is Dzántik'i Héeni, meaning Base of the Flounder's River.

Juneau was formally incorporated in 1900, became a home-rule city in October 1960, and was named the capital of Alaska in 1906 when the seat of government moved from Sitka under a 1900 federal law.

The Alaska State Capitol in downtown Juneau was built as the Federal and Territorial Building and dedicated on February 14, 1931, and it houses the state legislature, the governor, and the lieutenant governor.

Juneau is the only United States state capital on an international border, sharing its eastern border with British Columbia, and it has no roads connecting it to the rest of Alaska or the contiguous United States, so all goods arrive by plane or boat.

Downtown Juneau sits at the base of Mount Juneau across the Gastineau Channel from Douglas Island, which is reached by the Juneau-Douglas Bridge, and the Mendenhall Glacier is visible from the local road system.

The 2010 census counted 12,922 households in the borough.

Government is the primary employer in Juneau, and the city is home to the University of Alaska Southeast.