The First Bosphorus Bridge is one of the most beautiful bridges in Istanbul, it looks beautiful during the day and is even more beautiful at night. It is pronounced Boğaziçi köprüsü in Turkish. The bridge is a link between the European and Asian parts. It was created as the first suspension bridge. It has a length of 1560m and a width of 33.4m, the height above the sea is 64m.
At the time it was built, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, and today it is one of the 25 longest suspension bridges. Since ancient times, there have been ideas to build a bridge across the Bosphorus, according to records recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus.
Adnan Menderesm, the Turkish Prime Minister, issued an order for the construction of a bridge across the Bosphorus in 1957 and a contract was signed with a company from Great Britain in 1968. The engineers who worked on the design were Gilbert Roberts and William Brown. In addition to this bridge, they were also responsible for the design of the Humber Bridge, Auckland Harbour, the Volta River Bridge, etc.
In 1970, the construction of the Bosphorus bridge began with the presence of the president and prime minister. The company Enka from Turkey was in charge of the works in cooperation with the company Cleveland from England and Hochtif from Germany. About 400 workers and 25 engineers worked on the bridge. In 1973, the bridge was built, on October 30, which is also the anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey. The construction of the bridge cost about 1.07 billion dollars.
The bridge was named the Martyrs' Bridge on July 15 in memory of the Martyrs' Bridge where citizens lost their lives during the military coup. What gives the bridge its special charm is its special lighting, which was installed in 2077 when the exhibition was held. LED lights are color changing and save energy. It is considered that this is the largest project illuminated until 2017.
Author of the text:
Maja Glavaš, Bachelor with Honours in Communicology. Works in Tourism.
Contact: [email protected]; instagram: travel_europe1
Photo by Halil Ibrahim Cetinkaya on Unsplash
