Thinking Big Not Allowed

In the more-or-less developed world, a combination of the environmental movement and the entitlement drag on government spending have forestalled most large civil engineering projects in recent years. The Chinese Three Gorges Dam and their widening of the Panama Canal are exceptions of a sort only possible to a command economy.

Now someone in Russia has managed to revive a big dream, a railroad tunnel across the Bering Strait. If completed, this would enable rail freight to pass from New York City to London "feet dry." See this MSNBC News article for details.

The Russians might as well forget this big dream, for it requires a partner on our side of the Strait. There is no railroad from Canada to the U.S. side of the Bering Strait. Unfortunately, the green movement would make the building of this rail link impossible in the current political climate.