Focus on the longest suspension bridge in the world, opened last weekend in Turkey.
The longest suspension bridge in the world
Baptized “Canakkale Bridge 1915”, the building, which spans the Dardanelles Strait thus connecting Europe to Asia, was inaugurated with great fanfare by Turkey on Friday March 18, 2022.
A date that was not chosen at random since it coincides with the anniversary of the victory of the Ottoman forces against the Allies during the Battle of the Dardanelles on March 18, 1915, during the First World War.
This bridge is “a way of keeping alive the memory of the martyrs of Canakkale”, declared Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during his inauguration speech.
The longest suspension bridge in the world is in Turkey and connects Europe to Asia
Erected above the natural border separating the European and Asian continents, the structure has a total length of 4.068 km for a span (the distance between the two piles) of 2.023 km.
Monumental dimensions that make it the longest suspension bridge in the world ahead of Akashi in Japan, which has held this record since 1998.
It is also the first bridge built over the famous Turkish strait, barely 60 kilometers wide, which connects the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara.
The imposing building, whose construction will have required 5 years and no less than 2.5 billion euros in financing, will now make it possible to travel to Anatolia from Eastern Thrace by bypassing Istanbul, in barely 6 minutes.
By way of comparison, until now, vehicles wishing to cross the strait had to take ferries which could take, including waiting times, up to 5 hours to reach their destination.
Turkey inaugurated last Friday the longest suspension bridge in the world, built over the Dardanelles Strait (north-west), natural border between Europe and Asia.
The “Canakkale 1915 bridge”, 4.608 km long and with a span [distance between the two piles] of 2.023 km, is the first to span this arm of the sea of about sixty kilometers which connects the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmora.
The work, at a total cost of 2.5 billion euros, comes on top of the three other Istanbul bridges forming the link between the two continents and will connect Eastern Thrace to Anatolia by bypassing Istanbul.
Its inauguration comes on the anniversary of the naval victory of the Ottoman forces on March 18, 1915 against the allies in the Battle of the Dardanelles (also called the Battle of Gallipoli). The fighting, which lasted until January 1916, resulted in the victory of the Ottoman Empire against British and French troops. This bridge is “a way of keeping alive the memory of the martyrs of Canakkale”, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday in his inauguration speech.
In addition to this bridge, the Turkish president has overseen since coming to power – first as prime minister from 2003 to 2014, then as president – the construction in Istanbul of a tunnel under the Bosphorus, a third bridge spanning it and a colossal airport.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan also launched in June the construction of the “Canal Istanbul” project, a gigantic 45 km canal parallel to the Bosphorus Strait decried by the opposition and environmentalists.
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