Bridges of Istanbul

Bogazici Bridge

The oldest bridge built on the Bosphorus had been the one built for the Persian King Darius in 513 BC. Leonardo da Vinci offered Sultan Beyazit U in a letter to build a bridge ‘that extends to Anatolian coast’. But the opening of the giant suspension bridge realized only in 1973, at the 50th anniversary of the foundaition of the Republisc of Turkey, after a three year construction period. The total length of the bridge is r622 m; the distance between the pier legs is 1074m; the height is 64m and the width is 34 m. The construction cost of the bridge was amortized much earlier than expected. The toll is charged only towards one direction.

Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge

In order to diminish the traffic density, the need for a second bridge on the Bosphorus had occurred. The company built the first bridge was a German-English partnership. The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge was built by a consortium of Japan, Italian and Japan companies. There are eight lanes on the bridge; its length is rsoom and height from the sea is 64m. The radius of the wire ropes is 58cm. The elegance of its lines, the bridge itself and its columns, the bridge looks beautiful.

The Galata Bridge

The Galata Bridge was replaced with a new one in 1987 after the barges of the one built in 1912 creaked under the weight of the six-lanes of vehicles containing trucks, buses and cars. Even the taxi drivers that had to bear the traffic jam a few times a day when going to or returning from the old city to Beyoglu are sad that the old Galata Bridge that once used to be the symbol of Istanbul, does not exist anymore.