Just build the "space elevator" and be done with it. I know, we don't have the nanotube technology yet. Oh well.
There are more problems with that than just the material science. The top of the structure will oscillate and there is also the huge electric potential this would generate. We ran some back of the envelope numbers and hit some snags right off the top.
Okay. We should start with a small pilot project. Maybe a couple bridges--to Cuba, across the Formosa Strait, across the Bering Strait, across the Strait of Gibralter-- would iron out some of the kinks.