Can you imagine going to New York by train from Europe directly from Paris or London? It sounds crazy, but we have a megaproject on the table since the end of the 19th century, with tug-of-war, where other periods when it gained strength and then stopped completely, have allowed for exactly that: the revolutionary terrestrial connection between Eurasia and the Americas.

The key to achieving this is actually in a “small” – small by scale – section that does not exceed 90 kilometers: the Bering Strait, the strip that separates the coasts of Russia and Alaska in the USA. If this distance is closed, the effects at the international level will be so great that some people are already calling it the “Bridge of Intercontinental Peace”.

A great step of only 90 kilometers. The Bering Strait is a shallow sea strip with a length of 30 to 50 meters, with a narrowest point not exceeding 90 kilometers, which separates the Chukotka peninsula of Russia and the Seward peninsula on the west coast of Alaska. Its waters serve as a gateway between the Chukotka and Bering seas, and in the center is a small archipelago, the Diomede Islands. On the map it looks like a small cut in the middle of the Arctic Circle, but if we manage to “plant” it, we will be merging the two continents.

Its enormous strategic potential was evident at the end of the 19th century. Around 1890, Colorado governor William Gilpin made a proposal as ambitious as it was for its time: to design a Cosmopolitan Railroad, a railroad system that would encircle most of the world and be headquartered in Istanbul. Denver To achieve this, he offered to save the Bering Strait.

Gilpin wasn’t very successful in his effort, but the idea was attractive enough for others to take over. Soon after, Joseph Strauss, the “father” of the Golden Gate in San Francisco, theorized about infrastructure; and around 1904 a US railroad company proposed building a tunnel between the two continents from the Welsh headlands to Dezhnev.

An infrastructure supported by the Tsar. In 1905 Czar II. Nicholas approved the project of a bridge across the Bosphorus. Purpose: A trans-Siberian rail route connecting the Russian Empire and the USA via Alaska and Chukotka. Needs to support the initiative Beyond Russia— An allocation of 250 to 300 million dollars is foreseen.

But the tumultuous future of the 20th century made it difficult to turn this project into reality from paper: the Russian revolutions, the outbreak of the First World War, the emergence of the Soviet Union… made the project difficult. in 1905 to begin with.

While the scenario wasn’t the best and the Cold War was certainly not in his favour, the truth is that the project never came to an end. At least not completely. In the second half of the 20th century, Tung Yen Lin submitted plans for an 80 km “Intercontinental Peace Bridge”, and the project was occasionally voted out of the ballot box in the first two decades of the 21st century. to rekindle the debate and, most importantly, to prevent it from disappearing altogether. There was even a competition with ideas to unite the strait islands, one of which is Russian and the other is American.

last moves. You don’t have to go far back in the newspaper library to find news about Bering’s project. German magazine in 2007 Der Spiegel It echoed the ambitious Moscow-backed proposal to tunnel under the straits from Siberia to Alaska to transport oil and gas to North American markets. Backed by a consortium of Russian companies, the plan envisioned the opening of a tunnel of about 102 kilometers, which would include the oil and gas pipelines and the fiber optic cable network, as well as the high-speed rail line.

The ultimate idea of ​​his supporters and the Kremlin was that a traveler could travel from New York to London by train, passing through Canada and Russia, covering three quarters of the world. At least that was the official approach. But even then, some skeptics interpreted the move as a strategy to put pressure on Europe and show it the possibility that valuable energy supplies could be diverted to new markets.

Years later, in 2015, Russian Railways planned a massive Trans-Siberian highway that would connect Russia’s eastern border with Alaska through the Bering Strait…—Surprise! The project was christened Trans-Eurasian Belt Development (TEPR) and somehow got the baton issued by the Russian authorities years ago. “This is an inter-state project between civilizations,” said Vladimir Yakunin, head of Russian Railways. Its new highway would connect Russia to North America via the Chukotka region and as far as Alaska.

How will the Bering Strait be saved? Since the idea was first tabled at the end of the 19th century, it has been proposed to build both a bridge and an underground road, similar to the one crossing the English Channel since the 1990s. As for the distances, although the narrowest point of the Bosphorus is around 88 kilometers, the project proposed by Russia in 2007 referred to a 102 kilometers long tunnel built in three separate sections.

Tunnel works would take about 15 years as a requirement of that time, and the adaptation of the rail system would be added to this period. In total, the horizon covered in 2011 was 2045. South China Morning Post He points out that of the two possible options—bridge or tunnel—the underground option is the most likely. The reason: the strait is in the Arctic Circle, and any steel structure will have to face the challenge of withstanding sub-zero temperatures.

How much does it cost? In the case of TEPR, CNN mentioned a “billions of dollars” payment without specifying it. Some time ago, it was pointed out that in 2011, roads, railways, fiber optic network, gas and oil pipelines and underground infrastructure, including Moscow-backed and tidal facilities, had a budget of $65,000 million.

Much more than a tunnel (or a bridge). If the story of the Bering tunnel – or bridge – makes anything clear, it is that it is much more than a simple infrastructure connecting the two countries. Its strategic nature and international impact has already been made clear by Gilpin in the title of the book in which he summarizes his ideas, ‘The Cosmpolitan Railroad: compressed DNA Connects All Continents of the World Together’. The new road would connect America and Asia and open a direct land route between the USA and Russia. how do you know South China Morning Post InterBering’s Fyodor Soloview will be one of the most preferred China, thus benefiting from a new route for its export.

Infrastructure advocates say the Bering connection could channel about 8% of world trade in goods and stimulate development in currently abandoned areas. There are even those who benefit from a geopolitical point of view. Soloview thinks, “Ensuring the smooth passage of rail traffic, customs control, security on all parts of the railroad, bridges and tunnels and other regular cooperation will significantly increase the chances of peace.”

An ambitious project… and full of challenges. Of course, the project also faces significant challenges. First, and clearly evident, is its enormous technical complexity. Whichever solution is chosen, whether or not the archipelago opens in the middle of the strait, the challenge is huge: bridging more than 80 kilometers – and at its narrowest point. In the middle of the Arctic Circle, again with conditions that greatly limit the months of the year when work can be carried out at a cost of billions of dollars.

Certainly, beyond the technical and financial aspects, there will be other equally difficult issues. What will be the environmental impact of the infrastructure? Is it worth encountering such a project when there are other transportation options such as planes? To what extent does the current turbulent geopolitical scenario marked by the Ukraine War, strained relations with Moscow due to the conflict, and frequent frictions between China and the US affect you? Is this the best context for a project that can’t be resolved even after the Cold War and the fall of the USSR?

Images: NASA, Reddit, and Boiffils

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