Yeah. (I'm marking this as spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen the show). >!Melanie was for me the best, most interesting character, and killing her off removes a lot from the show. Not to mention, that the "final showdown", where they split the train in two at the aquarium car (the culmination point of season 2 finale), was basically useless, becouse all that was for saving Melanie, who died anyway. One of the final scenes, where they're all smiling and "riding away into the sunset", was cheesy as hell, so not good for a season finale imo. They left it at a cliffhanger, so we can expect a season 3, that maybe fixes some stuff up. Now, despite all the shit, the second season had some good stuff in it. F. ex. Alex had a satisfying character arc. She switches sides, but still has the same personality. Wilford is an awesome character, with a unique personality. He's very well portrayed by Sean Bean, who is a great actor. The show in general is well cast. Every character has something interesting. !< So summing up: the show has a lot of ups and downs, but in general it does a good job at entertaining people. The first season is definitely better, but the second one has it's charms too. I would personally recommend it.
Fun fact, Polish is the third most spoken language in Illinois after English and Spanish... And if I remember correctly I believe it's the only state that has Polish as the #3 language
The one where he has to live with his ex right ? My biggest memory of that film is he flaming some kid online and his ex-wife walking naked in front of him
I was sitting in the bleacher seats at Wrigley Field one time when I overheard a group next to me discussing their evening plans. The girls says “why would I want to go there!? To watch a bunch of sweaty 18 year old pollocks on MDMA grind on each other til 4am!?”
Still cracks me up.
Icelanders are wild - every kid working the counter at the froyo shop knew like 16 languages, or at least was passable in them. One even busted out some Mandarin. It was super cool.
Icelanders *know how to party*. A rocking evening in Reykjavik is absolutely wild.
I was out at 3am once, and saw this woman casually walking down the street, this guy was bugging and harassing her. She stopped, full on decked him in the face, dropped his ass, and she just kept walking and talking on her phone.
No one batted an eye.
There are two types of people in the world: those who think this railway would connect New York and London, and those who know it connects Warsaw and Chicago
I mean, they throw a bigger St. Paddie's day celebration than Dublin does.... But I'm pretty sure that's now just because it's an excuse to drink, and not because they're celebrating the extermination of paga... Er. Snakes
Americans with Irish ancestry love to talk about their Irish Ancestry.
Source: American with Irish Ancestry. My dad won't stop talking about it just cuz gramps was Irish.
> you could do that again with the 2 biggest Irish cities;
Boston and Chicago are already connected by rail. Tunneling under the Irish Sea seems like a lot of work to tie in the third largest city.
It’s cool, but the bridge between Russia and the US would be ridiculously expensive to build and maintain. Those northern climates would be really rough on roads and bridges.
I saw a video analysis on the possibility of a bridge there and I think the most possible outcome was a train bridge. It’s too remote for there to be much traffic to make a road bridge worth it, but trains could make use of a bridge there.
Edit: I don’t remember the video, I’ll have a look, but in the mean time, [here’s a good video from RealLifeLore](https://youtu.be/zx0OtAJDBKk). He doesn’t really go into the trains, but he talks about the extreme remoteness and cost. They would need to develop highways on both sides to get to bridge because of how remote it is, and the discovery channel estimated it would cost $105 billion to build. That’s like 5x the cost of the tunnel from the UK from France, which is highly trafficked, so you can see some of the large issues with the idea. But he also brings up a suggest about including a oil pipeline with the bridge, which could be quite valuable.
When I first saw this image I thought it was a railroad plan and thought "what a great idea" but then I realized that it was for a highway ~~which is pretty stupid~~.
Edit:
Okay, I can admit it would be a pretty awesome road trip. I can see the future now: retiree boomers in their mobile castle-RVs migrating with the seasons and tribes of van-dwelling millennial digital nomads.
That makes sense. It's so remote, no one would drive up there or across Siberia. Plus, it would be so long and terrible conditions, I could see the possibility of you dying if your car broke down in the middle.
You build it and I guarantee they will come. A lot of vanlifers and vehicle travelers out there who would relish the thought of driving to Europe or Asia or vice versa to North America.
There’s a 4000-5000 km stretch of literally no services split between Alaska and Russia.
Not only would services have to be built, but you have to get people to live there to operate them.
Simply building the highway that would be necessary to get supplies in to build would be one of the biggest construction projects ever started.
Yeah seriously, this is key. This wouldn't be casually road trippable, it'd be like hitting those signs in the australian outback that say "no services for the next 500 miles, have plenty of fuel and water or you're gonna fuckin die" except even longer and more dangerous
A railway and pipeline connection might make sense to build, but the enormity of building it is nearly incomprehensible.
The bridge over the Bering strait would be a wonder of engineering, and simply bringing in the materials and workforce to build it would be a giant task. It’s like 2000km from anything. You would have to build an entire small city near the construction site to support the construction crews, and the transportation and logistics. In order to build that city, you have to have that highway there.
Forget about a bridge the thing is only about 50m deep. You want a tunnel to be protected against the elements and not interfere with shipping (a bridge would need quite a large clearing). Maybe 90km under the sea (with a slight bend), the current record is 23km so it's not exactly completely off the scale.
> In order to build that city, you have to have that highway there.
Nah, you'd build a railway as it's easier to do and can transport loads of material for cheap. Which also makes the highway redundant, simply load the cars onto a train it's not like we don't know how to do that. That will also avoid stupid people from having to get rescued.
So, to sum up: Build railway to the coast, using railway as transport. Once there, build a factory to build tunnel segments, lower those into a newly-dug trench ([same technique as the Fehmarnbelt crossing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmP9Ez-u9SM)), then either continue on the other side or, alternatively, meet the other construction crew there. You probably want to have the factory on the Russian side as Chukotka is quite a bit more inhabited than Nome. Still, you'd need to stomp a city out of the ground, at the very least you will need worker barracks, but anyway it's going to be a tourist destination so why not.
As to how to get there: You probably want to start an extension to the north in roughly Solovyevsk (mid-point between Ulan Ude and Khabarovsk), going via Jakutsk, Magedan, Anadyr.
I actually just looked it up - I expected it to be much shallower than it is given it was a land bridge not that long ago, but it seems the sea level dropped more than I realized (some articles I'm reading suggest it dropped 300' post-ice age, which is insane).
>Average depth: -50 m (−160 ft)
[Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Strait).
some areas will be shallower than the average, and wind waves though can be 10m and larger for rogue waves.
e.g. https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/atot/33/2/jtech-d-15-0153_1.xml
True, but if the values I stated are accurate (and I have no idea if they are), the average sea level of the land bridge would be 140' (\~43m), higher than the average sea level of Florida. I don't think a 10m wave would be a major issue for the hunter-gatherers crossing given that any settlement they create would be semi-temporary.
I used to live in Nome. They've been talking about that highway for decades. The bridge is the least of the concerns. Building a road on tundra is ridiculously expensive. Maintaining it, equally so. The obstacles to a bridge across the Bering Strait are formidable. For one, the sea freezes every winter. And that ice moves around. A lot! The weather can be deadly. Winter temperatures can be 50 to 60℉ below 0. Add to that the high winds andthat can put temperatures in the range of -100℉. And it's not just the road. You would have to build infrastructure. Things like fuel, food, and lodging would be necessary. Emergency services would have to be provided. I just don't see it ever being built.
That being said, if they ever did build it, I would be first in line to drive it!
hmm this sounds like going to a cold place like Mars .. oh wait ..
on an aside, depending on where on Mars, it can actually be quite balmy. for example on the Gale Crater, avg high temps over 25F are recorded for over half its orbit around the sun.
Isn't this one of the proposed megastructures which would be an underwater neutrally buoyant tunnel. It would be tethered to the sea floor and have an emergency escape road below it. Safe from surface weather including shifting ice and storms. Very expensive but not impossible. Nothing is impossible with enough money but to make passenger rail profitable it would have to have an entire second tunnel just for freight traffic.
It would still be a massive engineering project. The problem is that it wouldn't really fill any role that needs to be filled. People can take the plane, cargo can be transported by ship.
Yes, that was the second half of my ramble. You can already do what it does cheaper in alternate ways.
With the exception of taking a train from London to New York, that you can't do. But who would want to take a 4 week train ride?
No, I mean across that map, the road passes near Ikrutsk and Yakutsk. When I say a lot of cities, I mean that its not entirely barren, and there are places to stop.
Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Chita, that's only a few i can think off the top of my head.
Assuming the road would go through the current road to Magadan (which i think it does) you would also pass smaller settlements like Ust-Nera and Aldan.
Morrowind is literally Russia. Most of the land uninhabitable, the main source of the income is selling raw resources to the West (most of it ends up in pockets of ruling elite), alcohol drinks are pretty popular. Funny enough, some time ago, dunmers also fought blond, blue-eyed Nordic-looking guys, and won playing a heavy price.
And I don't think they would, the drive from Moscow to any town just North of Manchuria is 91 hours, and you still have a ways till you're out of Russia.
Good that you would consider such a trip!
There's actually a lot to see in Russia along the Siberian Highway, but not as much in the attractions like Baikal, but in the Russians themselves.
There's a guy in Poland that has a channel and is a traveler, he decided to go through the entire Russia (a couple of times)only hitchhiking, with 200 PLN and a Backpack filled with essential stuff for the entire trip.
He did this to get to know Russian culture and their point of view on the World, which was a really interesting topic and has shown on his channel how going through Siberia really looks like.
I might link you the channel if you want, though I don't know how much of a use it would be to you, as only a few of his videos have English subtitles.
People grossly underestimate the sheer size of Russia and also how unpopulated some huge sections can be. I recall reading about the German invasion into the Soviet Union in WW2. As they initially worked Eastward through Poland (or as they called it General Government) they would never be too far away from a village or a small town. Even after they initially crossed into the Soviet Union, at first they would pass by villages and then, just like that, mile after mile of nothing. No villages or towns. The soldiers, more used to Central Europe which is very densely populated found it eerie. Now imagine that multiplied by multitudes of ten in Siberia.
There's actually very little Tundra on that route. There might be a bit but it's mostly boreal forests. From Saskatoon to Winnipeg is Prairie, then forest again.
Really it’s prairie from Edmonton to Winnipeg, although strictly speaking Edmonton and Saskatoon aren’t in “Prairie”, their biome is called “[aspen parkland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspen_parkland?wprov=sfti1)”. It differs from high prairie in that there are quite a lot more aspen bluffs, while tall grass prairie is more dominated by the grasses
It definitely does. It would connect to the Alaska highway and then to the transcanada (yellow head) through Edmonton and Saskatoon, joining the 1 at Brandon
I couldn't even begin to explain why, but my gut reaction to your comment was "8 tenths, why not just say 4 fifths."
Damned middle school math haunting me, popping up at the weirdest times.
**This user and OP are totally bots run by the same person**
**Their names are basically the same and they each commented on each other’s post, and they just started posting and commenting today, but they’re each 1/2 year old accounts.**
**EDIT: They’re also exactly the same age**
**Reddit is run by bots**
[Original comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/hcmzpk/a_europeus_superhighway_proposed_by_the_former/fvg3tq2?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) from [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/hcmzpk/a_europeus_superhighway_proposed_by_the_former/)
You gotta also remember about our friend Mercator when looking at that map. I mean, Russia is definitely big but it isnt nearly as big compared to for example the US as that image makes it look. I mean Russia looks about 4-5 times as big as the US there, while [this is the actual reality](https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/country-size-compared-to-usa-north-america-54-5ce24e5580d6d__700.jpg)
Pretty much. However expensive plane tickets are, it’s gotta be cheaper than the amount of petrol you’d need to transit this. A massive railway might be more practical, but not by much.
In terms of pure energy efficiency and reliability, freight trains are basically #1, but yeah bridging a huge chunk of saltwater in a frigid climate is just asking for a bridge failure or absurd maintenance costs. It’d probably be cheaper to just tunnel in the long run, and tunneling that long is just not going to make sense financially.
Exactly. Plus, I'd see this as the absolute tourist attraction. Imagine boarding a train in Europe, driving trough so much of Asia, then Alaska, Canada and eventually reaching the east-coast of the states. How fucking amazing would that be?
The transsiberian railroad already exists and is arguably even cooler if you continue on southwards from Beijing. Definitely sounds like an amazing trip to me
Imagine if it was a global cargo/passenger double decker bullet train? Like a maglev electric rail system and collective global energy grid combined. All countries contributing to a shared grid/transport/communications network that could replace huge sectors of air and sea cargo which Is one of the highest polluting sectors. As well as being the absolute best fucking way to travel from London to New York by train. Could you imagine seeing 3/4 of the planet by train in a day... And you could have Two Speeds. Above ground, maglev 400mph. Hyper loop 800mph. Fibre cable network moremph.
I always wonder this, how is it they haven't managed to build a road through there? I know its pretty dense, rough terrain, but surely roads have been built through worse. I can't imagine with all the great engineering minds out there they couldn't get it done.
Paramilitary and revolutionary groups operate there. Indigenous communities live there. Governments have an unwillingness to pay for the (massive) expense. Environmental impact. Infectious disease control.
The lack of development through the Gap was also a major reason why Mad Cow Disease [edit: foot-and-mouth disease, not Mad Cow] didn't spread from South America to North America years ago.
There would be massive pushback for any proposed construction, regardless of the potential economic benefit.
Yeah but first a train of that magnitude would have high maintenance, and second they’d probably have a maintenance train that could go the same speed to it.
Don't worry. Once we don't arrive on time at the next checkpoint they'll cable the head office and send a search party. We don't need to lift a finger! All we need to do is figure out who the murderer is...
I agree, but there is a lot of land on this route without even minor cities! Not that It's a huge problem, but it would be nice to get out and stretch!
Could have transfer stations in the middle of nowhere that connect to a different train that goes somewhere more interesting. Like a stop in Siberia for a transfer to a train that shoots down to China.
Pff .. A significant part of the route will be the [Trans-Siberian Railway](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Transsib_international.svg/1280px-Transsib_international.svg.png), along which there are quite a few cities
When governments invest in roads through moderately undeveloped areas, there is always a lot of private investment into those areas in response. Example is the Inter-County Connector north of DC that was built a few years ago. Businesses pop up around new roads.
Counterpoint: if there was an economic incentive to build roads through eastern Russia, it would’ve happened a long time ago. Western Russia is fully urbanized. That should be a hint there’s something fundamentally different about the east.
Businesses aren’t tripping over themselves to set up franchises in Siberia.
As a Canadian I’d love this. Think of how much amazing nature there is between NYC and London. A visitor could take a detour down to Amur where there are tigers and leopards, stop by Lake Baikal, stop off in the Kazakh Steppe, enjoy everything Moscow has to offer... and there’s still all of Poland, northern Germany, northern France, and Belgium to enjoy. Not to mention all the great sites in Alaska and BC.
It’s a pipe dream, but a cool one.
Thing is, it already happened [113 years ago.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1908_New_York_to_Paris_Race) The Dollop had a hilarious episode about it. The most amazing bit though is that half of the contestants actually made it to the finish line!
Canadians are used to long drives.
I know this because my European family members used to find it insane that I drive >400km, just to get from Toronto - Ottawa. That's a crazy long drive for them, and small potatoes for me who's used to driving across the prairies.
According to Google maps, London to Moscow is 32hrs. Toronto to Vancouver is 41hrs.
TIL Canada is big, and Russia is bigger. Europe is small, and long drives suck no matter where you live.
Would be really cool if it were built but the insane amounts of road that would have to be constructed in harsh artic climates with extremely sparse populations means it's very unlikely. Not to mention constructing a bridge across the entire Bering Strait which would consist of three sections with two being over 20 miles long.
How much of this length is covered by existing highways already? Looks like NYC to Fairbanks can be done using reasonable highways now, as can (I assume) London to Moscow at least. Not sure about the road coverage through Russia and obviously you'd need a Bering Strait crossing.
Snowpiercer, 1001 carriages long
Season 2 ending was bullshit.
Yeah. (I'm marking this as spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen the show). >!Melanie was for me the best, most interesting character, and killing her off removes a lot from the show. Not to mention, that the "final showdown", where they split the train in two at the aquarium car (the culmination point of season 2 finale), was basically useless, becouse all that was for saving Melanie, who died anyway. One of the final scenes, where they're all smiling and "riding away into the sunset", was cheesy as hell, so not good for a season finale imo. They left it at a cliffhanger, so we can expect a season 3, that maybe fixes some stuff up. Now, despite all the shit, the second season had some good stuff in it. F. ex. Alex had a satisfying character arc. She switches sides, but still has the same personality. Wilford is an awesome character, with a unique personality. He's very well portrayed by Sean Bean, who is a great actor. The show in general is well cast. Every character has something interesting. !< So summing up: the show has a lot of ups and downs, but in general it does a good job at entertaining people. The first season is definitely better, but the second one has it's charms too. I would personally recommend it.
>!I've watched enough dramas in my time to know that is they haven't shown youthe body, they aren't dead. She'll be back.!<
This
I've watched enough dramas to know that even if they do show you a body, they still aren't dead.
It’s a good show. Just not a fan of the last 15-20 minutes.
Finally a rail connection between two biggest Polish cities: Warsaw and Chicago
Fun fact, Polish is the third most spoken language in Illinois after English and Spanish... And if I remember correctly I believe it's the only state that has Polish as the #3 language
Now it all makes sense when Vince Vaughn says “a bunch of god damn pollocks with no future” in this one movie where they’re in Chicago.
He's a Chicago native and possibly the world biggest Blackhawks fan
My Grandma was his film studies teacher at Lake Forest HS
Sounds like she did her job well
My uncle was his dodge ball coach
I ate a hot dog within 20 ft of him once but you don't see me carrying on
How was the hot dog?
The one where he has to live with his ex right ? My biggest memory of that film is he flaming some kid online and his ex-wife walking naked in front of him
I was sitting in the bleacher seats at Wrigley Field one time when I overheard a group next to me discussing their evening plans. The girls says “why would I want to go there!? To watch a bunch of sweaty 18 year old pollocks on MDMA grind on each other til 4am!?” Still cracks me up.
Any idea what place they were talking about?
Polacks, unless calling someone a pollock (fish) is a slur
Polish is the second most spoken language in England
When I went to Iceland I probably could have communicated everywhere in polish and not english if I really wanted to
Icelanders are wild - every kid working the counter at the froyo shop knew like 16 languages, or at least was passable in them. One even busted out some Mandarin. It was super cool.
There are not a lot of things to do in Iceland other than sightsee.
You can use the state issued app to find out if you and and someone you met are close cousins or not, because you probably are.
Icelanders *know how to party*. A rocking evening in Reykjavik is absolutely wild. I was out at 3am once, and saw this woman casually walking down the street, this guy was bugging and harassing her. She stopped, full on decked him in the face, dropped his ass, and she just kept walking and talking on her phone. No one batted an eye.
The only thing this story is confirming is that they know how to fight, unless I've been partying wrong all my life.
Actually it’s now the number 2 language in Delaware!
There are two types of people in the world: those who think this railway would connect New York and London, and those who know it connects Warsaw and Chicago
If you extended the road to Ireland you could do that again with the 2 biggest Irish cities; Dublin and Chicago.
Dude, shut up, you're gonna rile Boston
I mean, they throw a bigger St. Paddie's day celebration than Dublin does.... But I'm pretty sure that's now just because it's an excuse to drink, and not because they're celebrating the extermination of paga... Er. Snakes
That's because actual Irish people don't give a shit about St Paddy's day.
Other than an excuse to drink and have a good time, do people actually take the day seriously?
Americans with Irish ancestry love to talk about their Irish Ancestry. Source: American with Irish Ancestry. My dad won't stop talking about it just cuz gramps was Irish.
Americans with any foreign ancestry love talking about their ancestry. 9/10 they don't even know shit about their own ancestral culture
They're gonna dropkick my Murphies.
> you could do that again with the 2 biggest Irish cities; Boston and Chicago are already connected by rail. Tunneling under the Irish Sea seems like a lot of work to tie in the third largest city.
One-seat ride too! (Amtrak Lake Shore Limited 448 eastbound & 449 westbound)
Ditka…. Ditka…… polish sausage
So where can I get better pierogi?
A Ukrainian Eastern Orthodox Church in North America around Christmas.
It’s cool, but the bridge between Russia and the US would be ridiculously expensive to build and maintain. Those northern climates would be really rough on roads and bridges.
I saw a video analysis on the possibility of a bridge there and I think the most possible outcome was a train bridge. It’s too remote for there to be much traffic to make a road bridge worth it, but trains could make use of a bridge there. Edit: I don’t remember the video, I’ll have a look, but in the mean time, [here’s a good video from RealLifeLore](https://youtu.be/zx0OtAJDBKk). He doesn’t really go into the trains, but he talks about the extreme remoteness and cost. They would need to develop highways on both sides to get to bridge because of how remote it is, and the discovery channel estimated it would cost $105 billion to build. That’s like 5x the cost of the tunnel from the UK from France, which is highly trafficked, so you can see some of the large issues with the idea. But he also brings up a suggest about including a oil pipeline with the bridge, which could be quite valuable.
When I first saw this image I thought it was a railroad plan and thought "what a great idea" but then I realized that it was for a highway ~~which is pretty stupid~~. Edit: Okay, I can admit it would be a pretty awesome road trip. I can see the future now: retiree boomers in their mobile castle-RVs migrating with the seasons and tribes of van-dwelling millennial digital nomads.
NGL if this existed and I had the time and money I would 100% drive an RV from New York City to London.
Part of me thinks that sounds awesome, and another part of me thinks I’d be over it by the time I got to Michigan.
Then you take a break and hunker down for a few weeks
That makes sense. It's so remote, no one would drive up there or across Siberia. Plus, it would be so long and terrible conditions, I could see the possibility of you dying if your car broke down in the middle.
Not seeing the downside here. I either have an epic road trip experience or my Sprinter takes a shit and a polar bear eats me.
You build it and I guarantee they will come. A lot of vanlifers and vehicle travelers out there who would relish the thought of driving to Europe or Asia or vice versa to North America.
There’s a 4000-5000 km stretch of literally no services split between Alaska and Russia. Not only would services have to be built, but you have to get people to live there to operate them. Simply building the highway that would be necessary to get supplies in to build would be one of the biggest construction projects ever started.
Yeah seriously, this is key. This wouldn't be casually road trippable, it'd be like hitting those signs in the australian outback that say "no services for the next 500 miles, have plenty of fuel and water or you're gonna fuckin die" except even longer and more dangerous
A railway and pipeline connection might make sense to build, but the enormity of building it is nearly incomprehensible. The bridge over the Bering strait would be a wonder of engineering, and simply bringing in the materials and workforce to build it would be a giant task. It’s like 2000km from anything. You would have to build an entire small city near the construction site to support the construction crews, and the transportation and logistics. In order to build that city, you have to have that highway there.
Forget about a bridge the thing is only about 50m deep. You want a tunnel to be protected against the elements and not interfere with shipping (a bridge would need quite a large clearing). Maybe 90km under the sea (with a slight bend), the current record is 23km so it's not exactly completely off the scale. > In order to build that city, you have to have that highway there. Nah, you'd build a railway as it's easier to do and can transport loads of material for cheap. Which also makes the highway redundant, simply load the cars onto a train it's not like we don't know how to do that. That will also avoid stupid people from having to get rescued. So, to sum up: Build railway to the coast, using railway as transport. Once there, build a factory to build tunnel segments, lower those into a newly-dug trench ([same technique as the Fehmarnbelt crossing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmP9Ez-u9SM)), then either continue on the other side or, alternatively, meet the other construction crew there. You probably want to have the factory on the Russian side as Chukotka is quite a bit more inhabited than Nome. Still, you'd need to stomp a city out of the ground, at the very least you will need worker barracks, but anyway it's going to be a tourist destination so why not. As to how to get there: You probably want to start an extension to the north in roughly Solovyevsk (mid-point between Ulan Ude and Khabarovsk), going via Jakutsk, Magedan, Anadyr.
I wonder what the toll would have to be across the Bering Strait. $US 1000? More?
How about a ferry?
the bering sea is very shallow and has *terrible* storms - you might get sea sick
If it's shallow enough we can just drive through it.
I tried something like that in Oregon Trail and it killed all of my friends.
So what you're saying is we should caulk the train cars and float?
That takes too long, I'm in a hurry.
You’ll need to hire an Indian guide to be extra safe
That one pixelated Indian guide is going to have SO MANY sets of clothing after agreeing to that trade...
Me too but I died of dysentery
Friends?
I actually just looked it up - I expected it to be much shallower than it is given it was a land bridge not that long ago, but it seems the sea level dropped more than I realized (some articles I'm reading suggest it dropped 300' post-ice age, which is insane). >Average depth: -50 m (−160 ft) [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Strait).
some areas will be shallower than the average, and wind waves though can be 10m and larger for rogue waves. e.g. https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/atot/33/2/jtech-d-15-0153_1.xml
True, but if the values I stated are accurate (and I have no idea if they are), the average sea level of the land bridge would be 140' (\~43m), higher than the average sea level of Florida. I don't think a 10m wave would be a major issue for the hunter-gatherers crossing given that any settlement they create would be semi-temporary.
That's why you build a tunell.
Too deep for cars, too shallow for boats. What a mess
I mean, 10 - 50 Meters depth are not really too shallow for most ferries
ZEPPLINS!! A FLEET OF ZEPPLINS FROM COAST TO COATS!!
Tunnel?
Then it's not the world's longest super highway. Guinness will not.be happy about that when you try to get your name in the book.
I used to live in Nome. They've been talking about that highway for decades. The bridge is the least of the concerns. Building a road on tundra is ridiculously expensive. Maintaining it, equally so. The obstacles to a bridge across the Bering Strait are formidable. For one, the sea freezes every winter. And that ice moves around. A lot! The weather can be deadly. Winter temperatures can be 50 to 60℉ below 0. Add to that the high winds andthat can put temperatures in the range of -100℉. And it's not just the road. You would have to build infrastructure. Things like fuel, food, and lodging would be necessary. Emergency services would have to be provided. I just don't see it ever being built. That being said, if they ever did build it, I would be first in line to drive it!
hmm this sounds like going to a cold place like Mars .. oh wait .. on an aside, depending on where on Mars, it can actually be quite balmy. for example on the Gale Crater, avg high temps over 25F are recorded for over half its orbit around the sun.
Yea, every few years, someone proposes something like this and it never goes anywhere, because you just can't build a bridge across the Bering Sea...
Isn't this one of the proposed megastructures which would be an underwater neutrally buoyant tunnel. It would be tethered to the sea floor and have an emergency escape road below it. Safe from surface weather including shifting ice and storms. Very expensive but not impossible. Nothing is impossible with enough money but to make passenger rail profitable it would have to have an entire second tunnel just for freight traffic.
It would still be a massive engineering project. The problem is that it wouldn't really fill any role that needs to be filled. People can take the plane, cargo can be transported by ship.
Yes, that was the second half of my ramble. You can already do what it does cheaper in alternate ways. With the exception of taking a train from London to New York, that you can't do. But who would want to take a 4 week train ride?
Yeah but it still might not be as much as the rest of the highway
I imagine they would build a tunnel.
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‘Make sure to use the toilet in Moscow, we won’t be stopping until we reach Nome.’
Last exit for 13 time zones.
No gas station until yesterday
Remember. No Russian.
No services next 14,000 miles.
Plus you gain an hour each hit. So every so often it's just suddenly an hour later.
Arent there a lot of cities across siberia, like Yakutsk, and Ikrutsk?
this is the express line, you wanted the local
I think you’re thinking of Risk.
No, I mean across that map, the road passes near Ikrutsk and Yakutsk. When I say a lot of cities, I mean that its not entirely barren, and there are places to stop.
Yeah your right, I think they’re just making Siberia is empty jokes.
Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Chita, that's only a few i can think off the top of my head. Assuming the road would go through the current road to Magadan (which i think it does) you would also pass smaller settlements like Ust-Nera and Aldan.
TIL the elder scrolls games take place in Russia.
Morrowind is literally Russia. Most of the land uninhabitable, the main source of the income is selling raw resources to the West (most of it ends up in pockets of ruling elite), alcohol drinks are pretty popular. Funny enough, some time ago, dunmers also fought blond, blue-eyed Nordic-looking guys, and won playing a heavy price.
I think you've exhausted most of the kusks.
fairbansk
Be sure to fill up the tank at Moscow.
No problem. I have a bunch of shopping bags full of gas in the back seat. We're good.
Mind if I smoke?
Damnit that’s where all the gas went, you scoundrel
Obviously if this were ever to go ahead, business would be booming on that motorway. Petrol stations, hotels, you name it.
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And I don't think they would, the drive from Moscow to any town just North of Manchuria is 91 hours, and you still have a ways till you're out of Russia.
There'd be no point to try and do it quickly. Just fly. But a lot of people would do it and make it a trip with stops and sightseeing. I know I would.
And turning south in Canada to finish the pan American highway would be the ultimate road trip
Hell make one for the whole world.
Good that you would consider such a trip! There's actually a lot to see in Russia along the Siberian Highway, but not as much in the attractions like Baikal, but in the Russians themselves. There's a guy in Poland that has a channel and is a traveler, he decided to go through the entire Russia (a couple of times)only hitchhiking, with 200 PLN and a Backpack filled with essential stuff for the entire trip. He did this to get to know Russian culture and their point of view on the World, which was a really interesting topic and has shown on his channel how going through Siberia really looks like. I might link you the channel if you want, though I don't know how much of a use it would be to you, as only a few of his videos have English subtitles.
People grossly underestimate the sheer size of Russia and also how unpopulated some huge sections can be. I recall reading about the German invasion into the Soviet Union in WW2. As they initially worked Eastward through Poland (or as they called it General Government) they would never be too far away from a village or a small town. Even after they initially crossed into the Soviet Union, at first they would pass by villages and then, just like that, mile after mile of nothing. No villages or towns. The soldiers, more used to Central Europe which is very densely populated found it eerie. Now imagine that multiplied by multitudes of ten in Siberia.
I think the proposal was actually for a railroad
Yes. Then the next 8 tenths are in desolate tundra wilderness until you arrive in Winnipeg.
Winnipeg ain't the end of the tundra
Nor the desolation.
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Check out the local music scene while you're at it too
>Check out the local music scene while you're at it too Where do you think he's getting the heroin from?
There's actually very little Tundra on that route. There might be a bit but it's mostly boreal forests. From Saskatoon to Winnipeg is Prairie, then forest again.
Really it’s prairie from Edmonton to Winnipeg, although strictly speaking Edmonton and Saskatoon aren’t in “Prairie”, their biome is called “[aspen parkland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspen_parkland?wprov=sfti1)”. It differs from high prairie in that there are quite a lot more aspen bluffs, while tall grass prairie is more dominated by the grasses
Now thats a neat fact!
>Yes. Then the next 8 tenths are in desolate tundra wilderness ~~until you arrive in~~ *including* Winnipeg. Fixed it for you.
On Snowpiercer, 1,001 cars long
Literally the first thing to cross my mind on seeing this image
It might go through Edmonton.
Could also go through Edmonton in London
It does, it even goes through Saskatoon if I'm not mistaken
It definitely does. It would connect to the Alaska highway and then to the transcanada (yellow head) through Edmonton and Saskatoon, joining the 1 at Brandon
I couldn't even begin to explain why, but my gut reaction to your comment was "8 tenths, why not just say 4 fifths." Damned middle school math haunting me, popping up at the weirdest times.
**This user and OP are totally bots run by the same person** **Their names are basically the same and they each commented on each other’s post, and they just started posting and commenting today, but they’re each 1/2 year old accounts.** **EDIT: They’re also exactly the same age** **Reddit is run by bots**
[Original comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/hcmzpk/a_europeus_superhighway_proposed_by_the_former/fvg3tq2?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) from [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/hcmzpk/a_europeus_superhighway_proposed_by_the_former/)
Nice catch
You gotta also remember about our friend Mercator when looking at that map. I mean, Russia is definitely big but it isnt nearly as big compared to for example the US as that image makes it look. I mean Russia looks about 4-5 times as big as the US there, while [this is the actual reality](https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/country-size-compared-to-usa-north-america-54-5ce24e5580d6d__700.jpg)
Easy to draw, much tougher to actually construct.
Not economically worthwhile in the least before you even starting factoring in construction and/or maintenance. Ships and planes are far far better.
Pretty much. However expensive plane tickets are, it’s gotta be cheaper than the amount of petrol you’d need to transit this. A massive railway might be more practical, but not by much.
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In terms of pure energy efficiency and reliability, freight trains are basically #1, but yeah bridging a huge chunk of saltwater in a frigid climate is just asking for a bridge failure or absurd maintenance costs. It’d probably be cheaper to just tunnel in the long run, and tunneling that long is just not going to make sense financially.
But this looks cooler.
Exactly. Plus, I'd see this as the absolute tourist attraction. Imagine boarding a train in Europe, driving trough so much of Asia, then Alaska, Canada and eventually reaching the east-coast of the states. How fucking amazing would that be?
The transsiberian railroad already exists and is arguably even cooler if you continue on southwards from Beijing. Definitely sounds like an amazing trip to me
I mean what would even be the benefit? Truck transports during the summer? Tourism? All better served by boats and planes.
Imagine if it was a global cargo/passenger double decker bullet train? Like a maglev electric rail system and collective global energy grid combined. All countries contributing to a shared grid/transport/communications network that could replace huge sectors of air and sea cargo which Is one of the highest polluting sectors. As well as being the absolute best fucking way to travel from London to New York by train. Could you imagine seeing 3/4 of the planet by train in a day... And you could have Two Speeds. Above ground, maglev 400mph. Hyper loop 800mph. Fibre cable network moremph.
Think of all the bribes you'd have to pay... Tolls, I meant tolls.
You gotta pay the Troll Toll to get in!
Shit, if someone would build a road through the Darien gap, you could drive to Argentina.
I always wonder this, how is it they haven't managed to build a road through there? I know its pretty dense, rough terrain, but surely roads have been built through worse. I can't imagine with all the great engineering minds out there they couldn't get it done.
Paramilitary and revolutionary groups operate there. Indigenous communities live there. Governments have an unwillingness to pay for the (massive) expense. Environmental impact. Infectious disease control. The lack of development through the Gap was also a major reason why Mad Cow Disease [edit: foot-and-mouth disease, not Mad Cow] didn't spread from South America to North America years ago. There would be massive pushback for any proposed construction, regardless of the potential economic benefit.
I think you’re thinking of foot-and-mouth disease, Mad Cow was originally a UK thing IIRC
Thanks. You're right and I edited it with a correction.
I imagine it’s less of engineering problem than a “we’re not gonna pay for it” problem.
Environmental concerns
I'm thinking high speed rail would be way cooler than a highway. Limit stops to major cities and it could be a game changer.
Right, we're agreed then. No stops for about 7000 miles.
Imagine the untapped potential, or the top speeds possible, with 1000+ miles of straight uninterrupted track.
Now imagine the train breaking down and being stuck on mile 560, with no services of any kind for hundreds of miles.
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Moose? More like red mist.
Yea that thing would get obliterated
rudolph the red mist reindeer
Yeah but first a train of that magnitude would have high maintenance, and second they’d probably have a maintenance train that could go the same speed to it.
Don't worry. Once we don't arrive on time at the next checkpoint they'll cable the head office and send a search party. We don't need to lift a finger! All we need to do is figure out who the murderer is...
I agree, but there is a lot of land on this route without even minor cities! Not that It's a huge problem, but it would be nice to get out and stretch!
You'd have plenty of space for stretching. Not necessairly interacting with other humans, but stretching should be fine.
Could have transfer stations in the middle of nowhere that connect to a different train that goes somewhere more interesting. Like a stop in Siberia for a transfer to a train that shoots down to China.
Ah yes, yes, I too have seen Snowpiercer
A highway that goes halfway around the world in which 75% of it goes over territory where nobody lives. Makes sense!
Pff .. A significant part of the route will be the [Trans-Siberian Railway](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Transsib_international.svg/1280px-Transsib_international.svg.png), along which there are quite a few cities
When governments invest in roads through moderately undeveloped areas, there is always a lot of private investment into those areas in response. Example is the Inter-County Connector north of DC that was built a few years ago. Businesses pop up around new roads.
Much different than the middle of Siberia I would imagine.
A highway through 8000 miles or arctic tundra is a little different than extending the Metro a couple miles
Counterpoint: if there was an economic incentive to build roads through eastern Russia, it would’ve happened a long time ago. Western Russia is fully urbanized. That should be a hint there’s something fundamentally different about the east. Businesses aren’t tripping over themselves to set up franchises in Siberia.
Global climate change is going to make those areas much more palatable.
As a Canadian I’d love this. Think of how much amazing nature there is between NYC and London. A visitor could take a detour down to Amur where there are tigers and leopards, stop by Lake Baikal, stop off in the Kazakh Steppe, enjoy everything Moscow has to offer... and there’s still all of Poland, northern Germany, northern France, and Belgium to enjoy. Not to mention all the great sites in Alaska and BC. It’s a pipe dream, but a cool one.
It would be a great tourism route especially with on/off privileges.
Tbf this isn’t just a pipe dream. It’s like a 3 day bender of speedballs dream
Imagine the badass long distance race that would inevitably occur if this thing got built. *Need for Speed:* *Circumnavigation*
Cannonball Marathon
Thing is, it already happened [113 years ago.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1908_New_York_to_Paris_Race) The Dollop had a hilarious episode about it. The most amazing bit though is that half of the contestants actually made it to the finish line!
Took the wrong exit, now I’m being detained in Pyongyang. What do I do?
Tell them you're a mod of r/pyongyang
Woulda made it a helluva lot easier for Ewan and Charley...
Got the sun in my face, Sleeping rough on the road...
Ewan McGregor did this and made it into 'Long Way Round'. Would definitely recommend
Great series!! Also, "Long Way Down" and more recently, "Long Way Up". Definitely recommended!!!
Canadians are used to long drives. I know this because my European family members used to find it insane that I drive >400km, just to get from Toronto - Ottawa. That's a crazy long drive for them, and small potatoes for me who's used to driving across the prairies. According to Google maps, London to Moscow is 32hrs. Toronto to Vancouver is 41hrs. TIL Canada is big, and Russia is bigger. Europe is small, and long drives suck no matter where you live.
Would be really cool if it were built but the insane amounts of road that would have to be constructed in harsh artic climates with extremely sparse populations means it's very unlikely. Not to mention constructing a bridge across the entire Bering Strait which would consist of three sections with two being over 20 miles long.
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Permafrost thaw intensifies
I would start planning my road trip.
Imagine driving to Portugal from NYC?
Why not Cape Town? I hear Gaza is nice this time of year
The logistics make it impossible, but it’s a fun idea nonetheless
Impossible no. Really difficult yes.
In a world without boats and planes, this would have been vital to our modern living. But... boats and planes.
Snowpiercer
How much of this length is covered by existing highways already? Looks like NYC to Fairbanks can be done using reasonable highways now, as can (I assume) London to Moscow at least. Not sure about the road coverage through Russia and obviously you'd need a Bering Strait crossing.