Léon Loïcq de Lobel was a French engineer, explorer, and early megaproject promoter whose name became closely linked to the first serious international attempt to advance a Bering Strait fixed link. Between 1898 and 1907, he pursued a transcontinental scheme to connect North America and Eurasia by rail via Canada, Alaska, Chukotka, and the Trans-Siberian Railway — including tunnels toward the Diomede Islands as the natural midpoint between the continents. By Fyodor Soloview, March 2026
by Scott Blair, ENR
November 11, 2014
InterBering, LLC
BERING STRAIT TUNNEL &
INTERNATIONAL RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT
English
Connecting people and continents.
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America – Asia – Europe
International Railroad
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By Ed Peters, South China Morning Post — Oct. 4, 2020
John Arthur Lynch: An Early Advocate of a Bering Strait Connection. Irish-born American lawyer and Civil War officer John Arthur Lynch (ca. 1828-1900) was among the earliest documented promoters of transportation links between North America and Asia through Alaska and the Bering Strait region. Working from Washington, D.C., he petitioned Congress to investigate routes toward Russia, Japan, and China. His advocacy prompted an 1886 Senate bill and federal review, helping establish the Alaska-Asia transportation concept in the official U.S. record decades before detailed bridge and tunnel proposals emerged.
Fyodor Soloview, April 2026.
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Opening of the railway connecting Yakutia with the main Russian railways
November 15, 2011, Nizhny Bestyakh
In Yakutia, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took part in an official opening ceremony of the Berkakit-Tommot-Nizhny Bestyakh railway.
President Dmitry Medvedev attended a ceremony on November 15, 2011 dedicated to the construction of a railway stretch, which will cut the shortest way to the capital of Yakutia, Yakutsk.
The "golden track," laid in a ceremonial setting, linked the town of Berkatit of the Baikal Amur Railway and Nizhny Bestyakh, 15 kilometers from Yakutsk.
Dmitry Medvedev congratulated everyone who took part in the construction of this railway line, stressing that the work was carried out in permafrost and the difficult conditions of the Russian North.
SPEECH BY PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV:
Good afternoon, friends,
It is a wonderful day today, a memorable day, because we are about to take what is perhaps the most eagerly awaited step towards the launch of the Amur-Yakutsk Railway. The construction began back in the 1980s and for various reasons - the difficulties in the country and the lack of funding - the project took several decades to complete. The last stage was carried out at an accelerated pace and today we will have an opportunity to take part in the conclusion of this enormous and vitally important work.
This is Russia's most northerly railway, and it will be part of the nationwide rail network of our great motherland. It is truly crucial event for the residents of Yakutia and for our entire nation. Our most important task for today is to thank all those who took part in the railway construction.
You brought this project to its conclusion working in permafrost and in the complex conditions of the Russian climate. Well done, you deserve the greatest praise, the highest commendations. But that's not all - we are about to take part in a symbolic event. It is essential for us to extend the railway to Yakutsk, to pass over Lena and make sure that everything is done as it should be (applause). I knew you would react to it properly, because we really must do it.
Railways are not built for the sake of laying metal on the ground but for the people, for you. So we'll make the connection, have no doubt about it. But that is not all because we have big plans for how we develop the railways in the North. And I am confident that these plans will be implemented in the coming decades and in this respect we will become the most advanced country in the world. And I very much hope that everyone present here will be involved in this.
Dear friends, my congratulations to all of you. I am very happy to be here with you today. Once again I would like to thank all those who built the railway, who provided assistance, who hoped and waited, and who finally got a chance to witness this great event. So, let's all say thank you, and I give the command to start the laying of the final unit.
Medvedev said at the ceremony that a railway crossing would be built across the Lena River near Yakutsk from the Amur-Yakutsk Railway.
"The crossing will be built by all means. Have no doubts about that," he said.
"We also have impressive plans to further develop railway services in the North, which we hope will come true in the coming decade," the Russian president said.
After a railway crossing is built across the Lena, the railway will reach Yakutsk, while its other branch will run from Nizhny Bestyakh to Magadan and further to the Bering Strait.
Official ceremony on the completion of the Berkakit-Tommot-Nizhny Bestyakh railway.
Viewing a model of the railway bridge across the Lena River before the opening ceremony for the Berkakit-Tommot-Nizhny Bestyakh railway line. With Head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Yegor Borisov (right) and Transport Minister Igor Levitin.
Photo Credits and Sources:
Photographs by Yekaterina Shtukina / Presidential Press and Information Office of the President of Russia, November 15, 2011.
Original source: Kremlin.ru — President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the opening of the Berkakit–Tommot–Nizhny Bestyakh railway.
Wikimedia Commons: Dmitry Medvedev in the Sakha Republic, November 2011 — archive of the photographs from the visit, including individual image records and licensing information.
