The Bering Strait Crossing

"The Bering Strait Crossing" is the epic story of endeavours to unite the world across this ancient waterway. The Bering Strait - when the fog clears over the Diomede Islands - is among the world's most stunning vistas. This is where the 53-mile wide strait, named for Danish explorer Vitus Bering (c.1681-1741), separates four continents: across the Europe-Asia landmass and the Americas. Geopolitical tensions, extremes of climate, and remoteness have inter-mingled to create the perception of a frozen limbo at the Edge of the World. Yet the Bering Strait is the world's crossroads - linking East with West, and the Pacific Ocean with the Arctic Ocean. Nowhere else on the globe is it possible to cross the Pacific overland - between the Old World and the New. The narrative reveals a surprise or two: the scheme for a Bering Strait crossing was first proposed in the mid-19th Century, and seriously considered in 1904 - and again 1942. These windows in time opened, and then closed. When, then, will the next window open across this same horizon?

In the early 21st century, the self-induced amnesia of the long Cold War years is yielding to a fresh outlook between East and West across the strait. In a world thirsty for energy resources and trade, the prospect for US-Russian cooperation across the northern Pacific Rim is tantalising in its multiplicity - and vastness - with profound implications for the global economy. James A. Oliver blends literary non-fiction wtih international relations with to recount a story that has been lost to the achives - but which belongs to the future as much as to the past. From East and West, enter a cast of extraordinary protagonists: Dezhnev, Vitus Bering, Shelikov, William Gilpin, E.H. Harriman, Harry de Windt, Frederic Delano - and, since the end of the Cold War - George Koumal, whose vision for a mighty project to cross the strait is worthy of a Jules Verne Voyages Extraordinaire..."The Bering Strait project has a deep, worldwide significance." - Dr Yutaka Mochida

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