Atatürk Bridge () is a road bridge across the

Golden Horn The Golden Horn ( or ) is a major urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. As a natural estuary that connects with the Bosphorus Strait at the point where the strait meets the Sea of Marmara, the waters of the ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. It is named after

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...

, the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey but is sometimes called the Unkapanı Bridge after the district on its western shore.

History

Originally named the '' Hayratiye Bridge'', it was commissioned by the reformist Ottoman

Sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

Mahmud II Mahmud II (, ; 20 July 1785 – 1 July 1839) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. Often described as the "Peter the Great of Turkey", Mahmud instituted extensive administrative, military, and fiscal reforms ...

and supervised by Ahmed Fevzi Pasha, the Deputy Admiral of the Ottoman Fleet. The work was completed in 1836 and connected Unkapanı on the western side of the Golden Horn with Azapkapı on the eastern side. The original bridge was about long and wide, and was built as a

bascule bridge A bascule bridge (also referred to as a drawbridge or a lifting bridge) is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances a span, or leaf, throughout its upward swing to provide clearance for boat traffic. It may be single- o ...

to accommodate the passage of large ships. Sultan Mahmud II attended the opening of the bridge in 1836, crossing over it on his horse. In 1875 the original bridge was replaced by a second model, made of

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

and constructed by a French company for the price of 135,000 Ottoman gold liras. It was long and wide, and remained in service from 1875 to 1912, when it was demolished. In 1912, the nearby Third Galata Bridge was disassembled and reassembled on the site of the old Hayratiye Bridge, becoming the third bridge on the site. This bridge continued in use until 1936 when it was damaged by a storm. The fourth and current bridge, renamed the Atatürk Bridge, was constructed between 1936 and 1940. It is long and wide. In 2022 the Unkapanı access area was completely remodelled to allow the extension of the T5 tram from Alibeyköy to be extended from Cibali to Eminönü.

References

External links

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Türkçe Bilgi: Unkapanı Atatürk Köprüsü
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ataturk Bridge Bridges in Istanbul Bridges completed in 1940 Golden Horn Fatih Buildings and structures in Beyoğlu Road bridges in Turkey

History

See also

References

External links