https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian%E2%80%93American_Teleg... here's a great historical episode that few people are aware of attempting to cross Siberia with a telegraph line in the late 1800s. The Americans involved in the project were probably the first Americans to see that part of the world.

Also interesting is that ancestral relative of the Cold War era American Diplomat George Kennan of the same name was involved in the project. In fact it's the ancestors experience that likely led him to become a Russia expert and in turn define critical parts of American Cold War Doctrine