Bering Strait

The Bering Strait is a narrow waterway linking the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and separating the Chukchi Peninsula in the Russian Far East from the Seward Peninsula in Alaska. It occupies a central place in the geography, history and environmental science of the northern polar regions and has long attracted scientific, political and cultural interest. The strait takes its name from the Danish-born navigator Vitus Bering, who explored the region in the eighteenth century under the Russian Empire.

Geographic Features

At its narrowest point, the Bering Strait is approximately eighty-five kilometres wide, lying between Cape Dezhnev—the easternmost point of the Asian continent—and Cape Prince of Wales, the westernmost point of mainland North America. Its deepest point is comparatively shallow, forming part of a broad continental shelf system that continues north into the Chukchi Sea and south into the Bering Sea.
The region is sparsely populated by Indigenous communities, including the Yupik, Inuit and Chukchi peoples, who maintain linguistic and cultural ties and have historically relied on marine resources for subsistence. The present maritime boundary between Russia and the United States follows a longitude of roughly 168°58′W, located just south of the Arctic Circle.
Geologically, the strait is believed to have formed millions of years ago. It may have narrowed significantly around 900,000 years ago, a development considered by some researchers to have played a role in extending glacial periods. The sea floor on both sides of the strait is shallow, and during periods of low sea level it becomes exposed, enabling the formation of land bridges.

Scientific Importance and Beringia

The Bering Strait is closely associated with the theory of Beringia—the dry landmass that existed during the Pleistocene when global sea levels were significantly lower. This land bridge connected Siberia with Alaska and facilitated the migration of plants, animals and early humans. The prevailing scientific view holds that the first human populations entered the Americas via this corridor. While alternative hypotheses exist, the Beringian route remains the most widely accepted explanation for the earliest settlements in the Western Hemisphere.

Exploration and Notable Expeditions

European awareness of a possible passage between Asia and North America developed in the sixteenth century, with maps showing a notional “Strait of Anian.” In 1648, Semyon Dezhnyov may have navigated the strait, though his reports were not widely circulated. Vitus Bering’s 1728 voyage provided the first recorded European confirmation of the waterway. Subsequent travellers, including Mikhail Gvozdev in 1732 and James Cook during his third voyage in 1778, contributed further mapping and scientific observations.
The twentieth and twenty-first centuries saw numerous modern crossings. Captain Max Gottschalk completed a dogsled crossing via the Diomede Islands in 1913. In 1987, long-distance swimmer Lynne Cox crossed the frigid channel between the two Diomede Islands during the final years of the Cold War, earning recognition from both American and Soviet leaders.
Sea-kayaking teams attempted the crossing in 1989, while later expeditions involved over-ice travel. In 2006, Karl Bushby and Dimitri Kieffer walked across the frozen strait, though subsequently detained for entering Russia outside an authorised port. In 2008 an amphibious vehicle succeeded in crossing, and in 2012 a Korean expedition walked across the frozen section. A relay swim involving sixty-five participants from seventeen countries took place in 2013, travelling from Russia to Alaska with naval support. Documentary teams and adventure groups have also attempted or completed crossings, sometimes encountering legal restrictions due to border security regulations.

Proposed Transcontinental Links

Ideas to physically connect Asia and North America across the Bering Strait have emerged periodically. A telegraph route proposed in the mid-nineteenth century was abandoned after the success of transatlantic cabling. In 1906, a plan for a rail-linked bridge-and-tunnel system received preliminary approval from Tsar Nicholas II, though work did not commence.
More recent proposals include the TKM–World Link, a massive tunnel scheme approved in principle by Russia in 2011, envisaged as the world’s longest undersea tunnel if completed. Chinese planners have similarly explored long-range rail concepts that would include an undersea segment beneath the strait. These projects face enormous technical, financial and geopolitical challenges.

Environmental and Engineering Proposals

Unconventional proposals have attempted to alter the Arctic climate via engineered modifications to the strait. In 1956, a Soviet plan envisaged constructing a large dam to prevent cold Pacific waters from entering the Arctic Ocean, in theory enabling warmer Atlantic flows to increase temperatures in the far north. American security agencies objected on the grounds that such a structure might compromise defence systems, and Soviet scientists highlighted risks including disrupted river navigation and potential desertification in Siberia. Earlier, the American engineer Charles Steinmetz had proposed widening the strait to allow the Japan Current to warm the Arctic Ocean. In the twenty-first century, new speculative proposals have re-emerged, focusing on preserving the Arctic ice cap rather than melting it.

The Ice Curtain and Cold War Border

During the Cold War, the Bering Strait formed a highly sensitive international border, often referred to as the “Ice Curtain.” The Big Diomede Island belongs to Russia and Little Diomede to the United States; the distance between them is only a few kilometres. Traditional mobility between Indigenous communities was curtailed, and the region was effectively closed to unauthorised traffic. After 2012, the Russian coastline of the strait became a controlled border security zone. Visitors may enter only through designated ports such as Anadyr or Provideniya. Those arriving without proper authorisation can be detained, fined, deported or banned from future entry.

Cultural Significance and Literature

The strait appears in numerous accounts of exploration and adventure, and features prominently in environmental histories of the Arctic. It is also the subject of academic research covering climate science, Indigenous cultures, migration history and maritime strategy. Works focusing on the region address its role as a cultural crossroads and its environmental sensitivity within the rapidly changing Arctic system.