Bering Land Bridge National Preserve

The Bering Land Bridge, or Beringia, is the great landmass that emerged in the Bering and Chukchi Seas following a drop in sea level at several times during the last two million years. Archaeologists believe that the first humans to enter the New World used the "bridge" as they slowly migrated from what is now northeast Asia to northwestern North America. This migration presumably occurred during the last major phase of the Wisconsin glaciation, a period lasting from 30,000 to 10,000 years ago. About 20,000 years ago the land bridge extended from Unalaska Island to the Mackenzie River of Canada.