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Another highway, the Tok Cut-Off (another part of Alaska Route 1), begins 15 miles (25 km) north of Glenallen on the Richardson Highway and extends 125 miles (201 km) to Tok. The Tok Cut-Off is sometimes considered to be part of the Glenn Highway.

The Glenn Highway is named after Capt. Edwin Glenn, the leader of a group U.S. Army explorers who tried to find an Alaska route from Anchorage to the Klondike gold fields in 1898 and 1899.

During World War II, the United States built a series of military bases in Alaska, primarily for the purpose of supplying aircraft and other war material to Russia by way of Alaska and the Russian Far East, as provided for in the Lend-lease act. This made it difficult for the Germans to the east and the Japanese to the south of Russia to interfere with the supply operation. As part of this operation, highways were built to supply the bases. The major highway project of this effort was the Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada to the existing Richardson Highway at Delta Junction, Alaska. Another project was the Glenn Highway, which connected the largest Alaska city of Anchorage with the Richardson Highway through a large length of very swampy land and thus to Canada and the other United States through the Alaska Highway, as well as to Fairbanks via the Richardson Highway.