Bering Strait

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The Bering Strait (Russian: Берингов пролив) is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Russia, the easternmost point (169°43' W) of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, the westernmost point (168°05' W) of the North American continent, with latitude of about 65° 40' North, slightly south of the polar circle.

The strait is approximately 92 km (58 miles) wide, with a depth of 30–50 m (100–165 ft) and connects the Chukchi Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean) in the north with the Bering Sea (part of the Pacific Ocean) in the south. Although the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev passed by the strait in 1648, it is named after Vitus Bering, a Danish-born Russian explorer who crossed the strait in 1728.

The area is sparsely populated. The Diomede Islands lie directly in the middle of the Bering Strait, and the village of Little Diomede has a school which is part of Alaska's Bering Strait School District. The Russian side is 21 hours ahead of the American side, and so on a different day.

The area in the immediate neighbourhood on the Alaskan side belongs to the Nome Census Area, which has a population of 9,000 people. There is no road from the Bering strait to the main cities of Alaska. Air is the main mode of travel. There are a few roads around Nome. However there is no regular air connection across the strait, just a few summer charter flights. This is because of a Russian policy only to allow tourists in organised tours, and with special permit to everyone.

The Russian coast belongs to Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Provideniya (4,500 people) and Chukotsky (5200 people) are the two areas located at the Bering Strait. These areas are also roadless.

Suggestions have been made for the construction of a bridge, the Bering Strait bridge, between Alaska and Siberia. An alternative connection would be a tunnel underneath the strait.

The land bridge that existed over the Bering Strait during the Ice Ages is known now as the Bering Land Bridge. Some scientists believe that so much water was stored as ice that the sea level dropped, exposing more land. Other scientists believe that during the ice age this strait was frozen over. This would have allowed homosapiens and other animals to cross.

In March, 2006, Briton Karl Bushby and French American adventurer Dimitri Kieffer crossed the strait on foot, walking across a frozen 90 km (56 mile) section in 15 days. (BBC) (although they were soon arrested for not entering Russia through a border control.)

Actor Ewan MacGregor said in an interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that part of the inspiration for his Long Way Round motorcycle journey from London to New York was that, when viewed on a map, the gap between Russia and the USA across the Bering Strait was in fact very small. MacGregor and his team ultimately crossed the strait with their motorcyles loaded onto a Magadan Airlines plane, flying from Magadan, Russia to Anchorage, Alaska.

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