question: Why haven't humans connected the Bering Strait with road or rail?
comment: That bridge would connect Siberia with Alaska. Neither territory has the population to justify the cost of building the bridge. People in the US wanting to send things into Russia or beyond (and vice versa) wouldn't send it the long way around by truck anyway. They'd put it on a boat or a plane and just go more or less straight. And there isn't really a highway leading from the region around the Bering Strait in Siberia to anywhere in Europe either.
passages: The concept of an overland connection crossing the Bering Strait goes back before the 20th century. William Gilpin, first governor of the Colorado Territory, envisioned a vast "Cosmopolitan Railway" in 1890 linking the entire world through a series of railways.
  
  Two years later, Joseph Strauss, who went on to design over 400 bridges, and then serve as the Project Engineer for the Golden Gate Bridge, put forward the first proposal for a Bering Strait railroad bridge in his senior thesis. The project was presented to the government of the Russian Empire, but it was rejected.
  
  Section::::History.:20th century.
   BULLET::::- "Planning and Design of Bridges" by M. S. Troitsky, 1994 describes many of the bridges and tunnels proposed in the Trans Global Highway article including on page 39 this book mentions that in 1958, T.Y. Lin mentions the possible construction of a Bering Strait bridge (and obviously a needed highway network).
  
  BULLET::::- Alaska History: A Publication of the Alaska Historical Society, Volumes 4-6 (1989) mentions on page 6 that in 1892, a man named Strauss proposed a global highway and a man made bridge over the Bering Strait. The article goes on to mention the Lin proposal of 1958.
   On the American side, probably about of highways or railways would have to be built around Norton Sound, through a pass along the Unalakleet River, and along the Yukon River to connect to Manley Hot Springs Road - in other words, a route similar to that of the Iditarod Trail Race. A project to connect Nome ( from the strait) to the rest of the continent by a paved highway (part of Alaska Route 2) has been proposed by the Alaskan state government, although the very high cost ($2.3 to $2.7 billion, about $5 million per mile, or $3 million per kilometer) has so far prevented construction.
   In 2014, reports emerged that China is considering construction of a China–Russia–Canada–America bullet train railroad that would include a undersea tunnel crossing the Bering Strait and would allow passengers to travel between the United States and China in about two days.
   In 1994, Lin estimated the cost of a bridge to be "a few billion" dollars. The roads and railways on each side were estimated to cost $50 billion. Lin contrasted this cost to petroleum resources "worth trillions". Discovery Channel's "Extreme Engineering" estimates the cost of a highway, electrified double-track high-speed rail and pipelines, at $105 billion, five times the cost of the Channel Tunnel.
  
  Section::::Likely route and expenses.:Connections to the rest of the world.
   A physical link between Asia and North America via the Bering Strait nearly became a reality in 1864 when a Russian-American telegraph company began preparations for an overland telegraph line connecting Europe and America via the east. It was abandoned when the undersea Atlantic Cable proved successful.
  
  A further proposal for a bridge-and-tunnel link from Siberia to Alaska was made by French engineer Baron Loicq de Lobel in 1906. Czar Nicholas II of Russia issued an order authorising a Franco-American syndicate represented by de Lobel to begin work on the Trans-Siberian Alaska railroad project, but no physical work ever commenced.
   The Strait has been the subject of the scientific hypothesis that humans migrated from Asia to North America across a land bridge known as Beringia when lower ocean levels – perhaps a result of glaciers locking up vast amounts of water – exposed a wide stretch of the sea floor, both at the present strait and in the shallow sea north and south of it. This view of how Paleo-Indians entered America has been the dominant one for several decades and continues to be the most accepted one. Numerous successful crossings without the use of a boat have also been recorded since at least the early 20th century.
   Suggestions have been made to construct a Bering Strait bridge between Alaska and Siberia. Despite the unprecedented engineering, political, and financial challenges, Russia green-lighted a US $65-billion TKM-World Link tunnel project in August 2011. If completed, the tunnel will be the world's longest. China considered construction of a "China-Russia-Canada-America" railroad line that would include construction of a underwater tunnel that would cross the Bering Strait.
  
  Section::::Proposed dam.
   In 2016, the Alaskan road network was extended by to Tanana, by building a fairly simple road. The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities project was supported by local indigenous groups such as the Tanana Tribal Council.
  
  Section::::Likely route and expenses.:Connections to the rest of the world.:Track gauge.
   Section::::History.:21st century.
  
  According to a report in the "Beijing Times" in May 2014, Chinese transportation experts are proposing building a roughly 10,000 kilometre (6,213 mi)-long high-speed rail line from northeast China to the United States. The project would include a tunnel under the Bering Strait and connect to the contiguous United States via Canada.
   Section::::Porte des Morts Passage today.
  
  While Great Lakes freighters still navigate through Death's Door Passage on occasion on routes from Lake Superior to ports in Green Bay waters, most use the Rock Island Passage. Freighters from southern Lake Michigan will use the Sturgeon Bay ship canal constructed in 1881. Commercial ferries transit Death's Door Passage daily to provide transport from mainland Door County to Washington Island. Recreation boating is common since navigation is not dangerous with modern marine electronics.
  
  Section::::External links.
  
  BULLET::::- National Geographic article
  
  BULLET::::- WisconsinShipwrecks.org
  
  BULLET::::- Death's Door Spirits
   Bering Strait crossing
  
  A Bering Strait crossing is a hypothetical bridge and/or tunnel spanning the relatively narrow and shallow Bering Strait between the Chukotka Peninsula in Russia and the Seward Peninsula in the U.S. state of Alaska. The bridge/tunnel would provide a connection linking North America and Eurasia.
   This excludes the cost of new roads and railways to reach the bridge. Aside from the obvious technical challenges of building two bridges or a more than tunnel across the strait, another major challenge is that, , there is nothing on either side of the Bering Strait to connect the bridge to.
  
  Section::::Likely route and expenses.:Connections to the rest of the world.:Russian side.
  
  The Russian side of the Strait, in particular, is severely lacking in infrastructure. No railroads exist for over in any direction from the strait.
   To make a bridge or tunnel useful, a road or railway must be built to connect it, despite very difficult climate and very sparse population that makes roads less economically motivated. In Alaska a 700 mile (1,100 km) link would be needed, and in Russia a link more than 1,200 miles (2,000 km) long must be constructed. Until around 2010 such road connections were suggested by enthusiasts only, but at that time both the Russian government and the Alaskan state government started considering such roads.
  
  Section::::The Americas.
  
  Section::::The Americas.:Vancouver Island.
   In 2015 it was reported another possible collaboration between China and Russia that will be part of the Trans-Eurasian Belt Development; a transportation corridor across Siberia that would also include a road bridge with gas and oil pipelines between the easternmost point of Siberia and the westernmost point of Alaska. It would link London and New York by rail and superhighway via Russia if it were to go ahead.
  
  China's Silk Road Economic Belt Initiative has similar plans so the project would work in parallel for both countries.
  
  Section::::External links.
   There have been several proposals for a Bering Strait crossing made by various individuals and media outlets. The names used for them include "The Intercontinental Peace Bridge" and "Eurasia-America Transport Link". Tunnel names have included "TKM-World Link" and "AmerAsian Peace Tunnel". In April 2007, Russian government officials told the press that the Russian government will back a US$65 billion plan by a consortium of companies to build a Bering Strait tunnel.
  
  Section::::History.
  
  Section::::History.:19th century.
   There is a proposal is to span the Bering Sea with a bridge or tunnel called the Intercontinental Peace Bridge, the TKM-World Link or the AmerAsian Peace Tunnel. This would link the American Cape Prince of Wales, with the Russian Cape Dezhnev. The Bering Strait Tunnel would consist of 3 tunnels connecting Alaska and Russia by going through two islands (the Little Diomede (USA) and Big Diomede (Russia)). The longest single tunnel would be 24 miles (40 km). Since the Bering Sea at the proposed crossing has a maximum known depth of 170 feet (50 m), the tunnels might be dug with conventional tunnel boring machines of the type that was employed in the construction of the Channel Tunnel. The three tunnel proposal is considered to be preferable over a bridge due to severe environmental conditions, especially the inescapable winter ice damage.
   The project, as envisioned, would connect the Trans-Siberian via Komsomolsk-on-Amur/Yakutsk in Siberian Russia with the North American rail network (gauge to be widened) at Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada, a distance of . A significant hurdle for the project is that the nearest major road to the Russian end of the tunnel is away. In addition, Alaska has no direct rail link to either Canada or the contiguous United States. Other leaders, including Wally Hickel, Lyndon LaRouche, Sun Myung Moon, and the 14th Dalai Lama have also advocated the construction of a tunnel or bridge across the strait.
   BULLET::::- "Maritime Information Review" a publication of the Netherlands Maritime Information Centre, in 1991 had an extensive article, on "strait crossings" covering the then proposed Bering Strait bridge, the Gibraltar Tunnel and so on, and mentions the proposed global highway network.
  
  BULLET::::- Popular Mechanics Apr 1994 has an article "Alaska Siberia Bridge" and the article goes on to mention the construction of a global highway.
  
  Section::::External links.
  
  BULLET::::- Didik's original Trans-Global Highway proposal
  
  BULLET::::- Map of its route
  
  BULLET::::- The Schiller Institute article on the Trans Global Highway
   There have been several notable crossings on foot. Sebastian Snow crossed the Gap with Wade Davis in 1975 as part of his unbroken walk from Tierra del Fuego to Costa Rica. The trip is documented in his 1976 book "The Rucksack Man" and in Wade Davis's 1985 book "The Serpent and the Rainbow". In 1981, George Meegan crossed the gap on a similar journey. He too started in Tierra del Fuego and eventually ended in Alaska. His 1988 biography, "The Longest Walk", describes the trip and includes a 25-page chapter on his foray through the Gap. In 2001, as a part of his Goliath Expedition—a trek to forge an unbroken footpath from the tip of South America to the Bering Strait and back to his home in England—Karl Bushby (UK) crossed the gap on foot, using no transport or boats, from Colombia to Panama. 
   With the area having been an important site for trade and military activity in the 1600s and 1700s, proposals to intersect the isthmus with a canal have emerged with various degrees of seriousness since the arrival of Europeans in Canada. The earliest proposals came from traders who frequented the area in the 1600s and 1700s. These early proposals occurred well prior to the creation of any strong central government in Canada which would have been able to undertake a project of this magnitude, making the Chignecto Ship Railway project (which occurred after the creation of a Canadian central government) the first serious attempt to intersect the Chignecto isthmus.
   Another complicating factor is the different railway track gauges in use. Mainlines in the US, Canada, China, and the Koreas all use standard gauge of 1435 millimeters. Russia uses the slightly broader Russian gauge of 1520 mm. To avoid transshipment difficulties, a new line would likely be built to a single gauge, but causing logistical issues wherever it met the rest of the rail network.
  
  Section::::The TKM-World Link.
   These hopes were dashed with the outbreak of World War I and the Russian Revolution.
  
  Interest was renewed during World War II with the completion in 1942-43 of the Alaska Highway linking the remote territory of Alaska with Canada and the continental United States. In 1942 the Foreign Policy Association envisioned the highway continuing to link with Nome near the Bering Strait, linked by motorway to the railhead at Irkutsk, using an alternative sea and air ferry service across the Bering Strait.
   BULLET::::- The Bering land bridge, which intermittently connected Asia with North America as sea levels rose and fell under the effect of ice ages
  
  BULLET::::- Doggerland, a former landmass in the southern North Sea which connected the island of Great Britain to mainland Europe during the last ice age
  
  BULLET::::- The Isthmus of Panama, whose appearance three million years ago allowed the Great American Interchange
  
  BULLET::::- The Sinai Peninsula, linking Africa and Eurasia
  
  Section::::Land bridge theory.
   During the Pleistocene epoch, global cooling led periodically to the expansion of glaciers and lowering of sea levels. This created land connections in various regions around the globe. Today, the average water depth of the Bering Strait is , therefore the land bridge opened when the sea level dropped more than below the current level. A reconstruction of the sea-level history of the region indicated that a seaway existed from  BP, a land bridge from  BP, intermittent connection from  BP, a land bridge from  BP, followed by a Holocene sea-level rise that reopened the strait. Post-glacial rebound has continued to raise some sections of coast.
  
presuppositions: A road or trail across the Bering Strait would create a useful connection between the United States and Russia.
corrections: A road or trail across the Bering Strait would would not be useful because sending straight by boat or plain would be easier. 
raw_presuppositions: A road or trail across the Bering Strait would create a useful connection between the United States and Russia. A bridge or tunnel across the Bering Strait would create a useful connection between the United States and Russia.
raw_corrections: A road or trail across the Bering Strait would would not be useful because sending straight by boat or plain would be easier.  The distance to travel or ship goods to population centers in Russia is shorter going east from the United States