Bering Strait

Satellite photo of the Bering Strait

Nautical chart of the Bering Strait

The Bering Strait is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, the eastmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, the westernmost point of the American continent, approximately 85 km (58 mi) in width, with a depth of 30–50 m (100–165 ft). The strait connects the Chukchi Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean) in the north with the Bering Sea (part of the Pacific Ocean) in the south. It is named for Vitus Bering, a Danish-born Russian explorer who crossed the strait in 1728.

The Diomede Islands lie directly in the middle of the Bering Strait.

Suggestions have been made for the construction of a bridge spanning the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia, dubbed by some the Intercontinental Peace Bridge, and, alternatively, for a connecting tunnel underneath the strait.

During the ice ages, and perhaps for centuries after, the area of the strait was a land bridge known as the Bering land bridge.

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