This question on Politics.SE asks about the alignment of maps, and got two answers. The first (mine) says the split through the Bering Strait was chosen for practical reasons, the second says that it's due to centering on the Prime Meridian.
This led me to wonder whether the ease-of-splitting was a deliberate factor in choosing the Prime Meridian, or whether it coincidentally happened that halfway around the world was almost entirely ocean. Was this a factor, or just historical coincidence? The Wikipedia article makes it clear that it was chosen at the International Meridian Conference, and provides some reasons, but doesn't discuss this part at all.