Hey Leon, ask GROK:
is building a tunnel across the Bering straight stupid?
Building a tunnel across the Bering Strait isn’t inherently stupid, but it’s a colossal challenge with questionable practicality. The strait is about 55 miles wide at its narrowest, with harsh Arctic conditions, deep water (up to 170 feet), and seismic activity from the nearby Pacific Ring of Fire. Engineering a tunnel in such an environment would push current technology to its limits—think extreme cold, ice pressure, and the need for ventilation over such a long distance. The Trans-Siberian Railway and Alaska’s sparse infrastructure mean connecting road or rail networks would also require massive investment. Cost estimates for similar mega-projects (like the Channel Tunnel, which is shorter and less hostile) suggest a price tag in the hundreds of billions, potentially exceeding $100 billion. Economic returns are dubious: the region’s low population (e.g., Nome, Alaska, has ~3,800 people; Chukotka, Russia, ~50,000) and limited trade volume don’t justify it. Alternatives like ferries or air transport are cheaper and more flexible. Geopolitically, it’s a headache—Russia and the U.S. aren’t exactly cozy, and China’s involvement (as floated in some proposals) adds complexity. That said, the idea has symbolic appeal: linking North America and Eurasia could foster long-term economic and cultural ties. Some studies, like those from Russia’s 2007-2013 proposals, estimated a tunnel could handle 100 million tons of freight annually, boosting trade. But the logistics, environmental risks (e.g., disrupting Arctic ecosystems), and political will make it a long shot. It’s not stupid—just wildly ambitious and likely impractical with today’s tech and economics. If you’re asking for vision, it’s bold; for pragmatism, it’s a stretch.
that sounds pretty stupid.
Yeah, when you boil it down, the Bering Strait tunnel’s a pipe dream that sounds cool on paper but falls apart under scrutiny. The costs are astronomical, the logistics are a nightmare, and the payoff’s shaky at best. It’s like trying to build a bridge to the moon—bold, but probably not worth the headache.
" suggest a price tag in the hundreds of billions, potentially exceeding $100 billion."
" trying to build a bridge to the moon—bold, but probably not worth the headache."
AI is the future.
Ah yes, Elon Musk, who’s famed for the quality of his tunnels
Remember the trapped miner incident where he called someone a pedo
I think that was a trapped minor incident. The trapped miner incident happened around the same time, but didn’t involve Elon.
It was a group of kids trapped in caves. Professional divers were working to help, Musk sent a stupid submarine that could not fit anywhere. When he was told that he wasn’t a genius, he called the diver a pedophile.
And remember the Tesla ventillators in 2020 that were going to save us all? Never used.
So yeah, it was about minors (children) trapped in a cave, not miners (the profession).
But in fairness, the Chilean miners I was thinking of was back in 2010.
Now you can travel from america to russia in only 8 days
but you have to get through Canada, if my globe is correct. It’s outdated, still says Gulf of Mexico.
If that can keep Elon Musk busy, I’m all for it.
It will involve corruption and graft of your taxpayer money, tho
So business as usual then
What doesn’t?
All this does, is convince me that Putin is a moron, too.
Build a tunnel under an ocean in a seismically very active area. So much genius, so much 4D chess.
Nah, these are loyalty tests by dictators, to prove that they will follow them no matter how crazy the idea is.
unless he’s doing it to make the US spend money on nonsense.
He just blew $180M on a ball room.
He’s not. Trump is old and is feeling the call of the darkness at this point (I’m sure Putin can relate). Trump is looking for legacy. Getting him on board with bullshit like this is designed to nudge him towards being more on Russia’s side, namely when it comes to sanctions and aid for Ukraine.
What I expect to happen is he’ll promise it, get funding for it, do a mile of it, drop everything about it, report a higher wealth value, get into a suspicious one car crash
Personally? By hand? Please?
I’d even pay to watch that
Its probably a standard Musk project. Show futuristic marketing pictures/videos of round pod-style futuristic vehicles to billionaire oligarchs and clueless politicians with a buzzword salad, until the hype brings in investors. Interest in his companies goes up, the imaginary price of the company goes up, his imaginary gold pile gets bigger.
Then pocket the money and fail miserably delivering even a fraction of the promised things.
The tunnel in Las Vegas, Hyperloop, Cybertruck, Robotaxi (still in progress afaik) Tiny House, the electric freight truck (I don’t remember its name), the various Mars projects just to name a few.
the electric freight truck
only working with Frito-lay to move potato chips. Literally the least dense load possible.
The biggest idiot in history who has zero clue about even basic engineering gets paid to build a sub oceanic tunnel through the ring of fire…
Man, life is good when you’re a narcissistic serial liar
The biggest idiot in history
be specific, I have an active Excel spreadsheet for 2025. My Premiere wants to build a tunnel under a 12 lane highway.
Not nearly as bad as trying to build a tunnel under the ocean through different tectonic plates.
Again, a great actual engineer might somehow be able to pull that off but Elmo Musk’s single self contribution to engineering has been the cyber truck.
Other things that actually sorta work, like say the SpaceX rockets (again, sort of work) are all the results of actual engineers doing their jobs and even then; you don’t see a ticket scientist building a tunnel because the two fields are extremely different and the amount of knowledge and expertise required to do either is so much that in reality you don’t have “an engineer” working on them, but entire teams of experts dedicated to separate sections of those types of projects. Yet, there are scores of people thinking that Elmo actually is an engineer (he is not), that is is a great engineer (lol no), that he designed the SpaceX rockets (lolololol) and that he is capable of designing a tunnel like that (aneurysm levels of hells to the no)
Given the distance required, what kind of economic payoff could be possible from such an expensive project? It’s not like overland would be a cheaper transport option than Pacific shipping routes or anything. It’s not just the Bering Strait being the problem with connecting the two after all, but the fact that there’s nothing in NE Siberia or NW Alaska to bother connecting together. Are we making it for the polar bears maybe? Or are people going to drive the thousands of miles from Juneau to Vladivostok to sightsee?
To move military equipment.
this is to make the soviet land invasion easier….
Sure, everyone through one access point. How’s life at West Point?
great
The Soviets had no intention to invade the united states (though they did want us to have a communist revolution, but like that’s just part of communism). This is all capitalist Russia
they worked a lot on boats but couldn’t make them fast enough to get across…. a tunnel would work a lot better
Honestly a tunnel to northern Alaska would be an amazing trap for invading armies. There’s just miles of rugged mountains before you even find a road. Then you get to deal with Canada…
oh no, maybe they’ll sick their moose’s on them!
It’s not like overland would be a cheaper transport option than Pacific shipping routes or anything.
I wouldn’t be so sure. Shipping routes may be cheaper, but I bet they would still be longer. I think it takes the better part of a month to get goods from China to the US. I bet this takes more like a week.
this article article estimates the distance at 8000 miles to the “lower 48”, presumably to Seattle. It proposes high-speed rail service to do the trip in 2 days, but I don’t think that will compete at all with air passenger service . Rather, I think freight traffic will be the real winner, and 7 days is doable at 50 mph the whole way.
Dont forget the 2000 miles of railroad that’d need to be built, much of it over frozen terrain, and a lot of it mountainous. That in itself would be an engineering marvel even before the bridge or tunnel work.
This is “space elevators” levels of unreasonable.
That will be great when the first earthquake undoes the tunnel
They solved that problem when they cut the USGS.
Ok Bering Strait, so only geopolitically, geologically, and financially insane.
Like I kinda see a world where this is a good idea. If ww2 had sparked a long brotherhood between our nations and with europe a high speed rail across the tundras might be a good lower carbon alternative to flying and the Bering Strait is the most land based path between Eurasia and the Americas. Personally I’m not certain a tunnel is better than a bridge for this, but a few days train ride from cascadia to Moscow or Beijing would have plenty of takers if everyone was chill and could take a high speed train ride from Moscow to Madrid (and major cities in between) and from Beijing to Ho Chi Minh City, Seoul, Bangkok, etc. It would leave flying as really only necessary for Australia and island nations like Japan.
That’s however not the world we live in, and Americans aren’t clamoring to go to Russia or trade with them
No bridge can be built in that severe climate.
He needs to build a tunnel to life in prison
Truer words have never been spoken.
OK, but it has to be from the east coast going across the Atlantic, and you have to pay for it all.
Sounds like it would make Alaska a lot easier for Russia to annex one day…
Sounds like it’d be really easy to drown a whole invasion force really quick.
Surely, Russia of all countries, would understand why it’s a bad idea to invade a region that is cold AF and makes logistics an absolute nightmare. *gestures broadly at WWII*
Of course, this is the same county getting their ass handed to them by Ukraine, a county 100x smaller than they are.
Russia absolutely doesn’t understand that, look at maps over time of the country, their control of Siberia is not as old as you’d think. Vladivostok was ceded to Russia in the mid-late 19th century
He can’t even build one in Vegas…
