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Amazing Maps posted this, uh, amazing map of a cross-Bering rail connection:

Proposed Russia to North America rail connection Source: http://t.co/h1ifUpOC4J pic.twitter.com/WAbVJhOCnY — Amazing Maps (@Amazing_Maps) February 15, 2014

It seems like a fanciful idea — a bridge or a tunnel linking Russia and the United States. And people have been tossing the concept around, without actually doing anything about it, for a long long time. Czar Nicholas II, for instance, thought it was a good idea … in 1905.

But there’s a slim chance it could happen this time. Sure, it would cost a bundle ($100 billion-ish) and take at least a decade to build. But in 2007, the Russian government started seriously thinking about it. In 2011, there was a rumor that Russia was actually putting aside $65 billion for this project. In 2012, the president of Russia Railways told reporters that “the decision to build must be made within the next three to five years.”

This would probably be a rail line that carried more oil than people. But it would mean, in theory, that one could take the train from New York to Paris (the long way around!), which would be an interesting, if inefficient, way to go.

See: Amazing Maps,

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