Siberia

Assembled from 13 blocks · 2 evidence · 13 related

1. Story
2. The ground the Trans-Siberian had to cross, and the reason it was built in sections rather than driven from one end. Its constraints are specific rather than atmospheric: rivers that run north and therefore have to be bridged rather than followed, a short building season, permafrost over much of the east that heaves and thaws under a ballasted track, and Lake Baikal, a 636 km barrier that the first through route could only answer with a train ferry. Settlement policy was part of the point — the state used the line to move population east — so the alignment tracks arable land and river crossings as well as the least-cost path.
3. Knowledge
4. Siberia
5. Connections
6. Trans-Siberian Railway
7. Permafrost as a track foundation
8. Construction of the Trans-Siberian begins
9. Train ferries begin crossing Lake Baikal
10. The Amur Railway completes an all-Russian route to the Pacific
11. Evidence
12. Supports the construction-stage sequence (West Siberian, Central Siberian, South Ussuri, Circum-Baikal and Amur), the 1891 announcement and Vladivostok inauguration, the Baikal ferry arrangement and the settlement motive. V55 verification basis: the collection essay was identified as an authority and its substance encountered in summary; loc.gov could not be fetched in this session.
13. Supports the BAM's route, its permafrost exposure and the 15.3 km Severomuysky Tunnel as the longest railway tunnel in Russia. V55 verification basis: RZD's page was returned as a search result and its substance carried in the attributed summary; it was not fetched. RZD is the operator and therefore an interested party for anything about the line's performance.