Siberia

node · earth · North Asia

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.