Bridging Two Continents
The first recorded bridge to cross the Bosphorus Strait was made out of boats in 490 BC by the Persian emperor, Darius.
Projects to build a bridge across the Bosphorus were prepared during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamit II in the early 1900s and later in 1931 in the Republican Era. However, these projects were sadly not realised.
In the 1950s and 1960s, intercity road communication was developed in Turkey and the government gave serious consideration to the problem of crossing the Bosphorus.
A traffic study concluded that a permanent crossing was both feasible and economically viable.
On 3 July 1967, the Turkish Grand National Assembly put in place a law on the works of the Bosphorus Bridge, linking Ortaköy on the European side with Beylerbeyi on the Asian side.
It was to be a suspension bridge with a main span of 1074m and a total length of 1560m.
Construction of the Bosphorus Bridge began in 1970 and was completed within three and a half years – a record time for the type and size of structure involved.
In 1988, the second gravity-anchored suspension bridge was constructed across the strait to deal with the unprecedented traffic within the city.