The Alaskan state government has proposed a paved highway (part of Alaska Route 2) to connect Nome, 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the strait, to the rest of Alaska, but the extremely high cost ($2.3 to $2.7 billion, or about $5 million per mile or $3 million per kilometer) has so far prevented construction...
The idea of a Bering Strait bridge has been discussed by engineers for more than 100 years. In 1918, John A. Merriam wrote that it was "one of the most important problems in transportation today." But progress on this project seems unlikely, as no country wants to become responsible for its own demise by building a bridge that will collapse under its own weight.
A tunnel is another option that has been discussed. The distance between landmasses is too great for a tube-shaped structure to be effective, but bridges can cross such distances with ease. The world's longest suspension bridge, the Qiaodong-Lama River Bridge in China, spans 12,996 feet (3,998 meters). It's also one of the only bridges in Asia over an extensive fault line. The bridge rests on pylons that are bolted to the ground using deep holes drilled into the rock; if one of these bolts began to loosen, the bridge would fall.
In conclusion, a Bering Strait bridge is not likely to be built anytime soon because nobody wants to be responsible for its construction or destruction.
Building a bridge over the Bering Strait would be prohibitively expensive, even if there are a handful of islands in the center (the Doimedes) that would reduce the cost to around $105 billion (5 times the price of the English Channel tunnel). The total area of the Bering Strait is about 20,000 square kilometers (7,700 sq mi), so the cost of building a bridge that is wide enough for vehicles to cross it would be about $280 million per kilometer.
The world's longest suspension bridge is the Bayonne Bridge, which connects New Jersey with Bayonne, New York. It consists of two sections: a main section that is 12 lanes wide and spans from Bayonne to Staten Island and a smaller section that connects two towers on the New Jersey side. The total length of the bridge is nearly 23 miles (37 km). It was built in 1931-1932 and has three major traffic lanes plus nine auxiliary lanes. Each of the main sections is made up of two parallel trusses connected by diagonal members. The main cables of the bridge are each made up of four strands of wire that are encased in rubber tubes to protect them from damage. The total weight of the bridge is about 725,000 pounds (340,000 kg).
The estimated cost of building the bayonne bridge is $63 million at the time it was constructed.
Across the Bering Strait With the two Diomede Islands between the peninsulas, a bridge/tunnel might traverse the Bering Strait. There might be one long bridge linking Alaska and the Diomede Islands, as well as a tunnel connecting the Diomede Islands and Russia. The bridge would need to be wide enough for large ships to pass underneath, but it would also need to be strong enough to withstand high winds, heavy snowfall, and ice that can form in the strait.
The current longest suspension bridge is the Gansu Yangtze River Bridge in China at about 24 miles (39 km). The world's longest continuous truss bridge is the Canadian CNR Gardenia Railway Bridge at about 11 miles (18 km), which includes a 2-mile (3 km) section of track that uses aerial tramways instead of rails. The Golden Gate Bridge is the only other major suspension bridge in the United States. It links San Francisco, California, and Marin County, near the Golden Gate Peninsula. The bridge is 3,000 feet (914 m) long and consists entirely of vertical suspender cables attached to triangular girders that support the deck. It was built from 1936 to 1992 at a cost of $35 million.
Other notable bridges include the Singing Bridge in Japan, the Rainbow Bridge in Ukraine, and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
A typical road bridge over the Atlantic would be nearly difficult to build, prohibitively costly, and completely unworkable. The greatest challenge for building is the Atlantic's enormous depth. Even the deepest non-floating oilrigs can only go below 550m. Thus, a bridge must be either fully or partially submerged in order to remain open enough for vehicles to cross.
The best option might be a tunnel, but there are engineering challenges associated with building a deep-sea tunnel that would not be easily overcome. For example, if the tunnel were vertical, both ends would have to be sealed by brick or concrete, which would increase construction costs significantly. A horizontal tunnel would require much more material than a vertical one of the same length, so it would also cost more.
Another option is an arch bridge, but this structure needs clear space under it where vehicles could drive. An arch bridge cannot span bodies of water because they would block out the sunlight which is needed by people living on either side of the river. An arch bridge could possibly work if it were built away from any coastlines, but this would limit its use considerably.
Finally, there is the suspension bridge, which is what most countries' main bridges are based upon. A suspension bridge uses towers anchored into the ground on each side of the river as supports for cables that hold up the deck of the bridge.
Although it would need a lengthy bridge and potentially a tunnel, it is thought to be a realistic construct. A railway span was proposed in 1890 as the first plan for a connection between the two peninsulas. In 1931, the idea was revived when Russian scientist Georgy Ushakov suggested building a bridge across the Strait. He estimated that this would cost less than $100 million at that time, but would require moving some of the ice from one side to the other.
The proposal attracted little attention until 1959 when American engineer John E. Widett Jr. published an article in the journal Nature describing how he had calculated that if enough rock were moved from one side of the Strait to the other, then gravity would be sufficient to build a bridge out of the material. His estimate was that the amount of rock required for a bridge 40 miles long was equivalent to about 10,000 feet of mountain.
This sparked interest in the idea among scientists and engineers who began to calculate what would be needed to build a bridge, find evidence of past movements of the ice cap, and discuss alternative methods for draining the Lake.
And the environment presented a lot of difficulties. It cost around $37 million at the time; now, the identical structure would cost approximately a billion dollars. The main reason for the difference is that modern construction technologies were not available in 1933.
There are some factors which have remained constant throughout history: human nature and politics. Politics is the practice of government, and politics includes law enforcement and defense as well as the management of public resources. When building the Golden Gate Bridge, these things also had to be taken into account. For example, there was no way to ensure that people who jumped from the bridge would not come back to haunt us years later.
People often wonder what would have happened if Hitler had been able to build the Berlin Wall. The answer is that it wouldn't have made any difference because people would have found another way over it. History shows that even when people are not going over land, they will find a way over water or mountains. For example, Osama Bin Laden has never been located even though many people have searched very hard.
In conclusion, we can say that the Golden Gate Bridge is an amazing feat of engineering and architecture that has withstood the tests of time. Even though it is over 80 years old, it still receives more than 4 million visitors each year.
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