Galata Bridge
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The Galata Bridge (, ) is a bridge that spans the Golden Horn in
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 ...
. From the end of the 19th century in particular, the bridge has featured in Turkish literature, theater, poetry and novels. The current Galata Bridge is just the latest in a series of bridges linking Eminönü in the
Fatih Fatih () is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 15 km2, and its population is 368,227 (2022). It is home to almost all of the provincial authorities (including the mayor's office, police headquarters, metro ...
district and Karaköy in Beyoğlu since the early 19th century. The current bridge, the fifth on the same site, was built in 1994. The bridge was named after
Galata Galata is the former name of the Karaköy neighbourhood in Istanbul, which is located at the northern shore of the Golden Horn. The district is connected to the historic Fatih district by several bridges that cross the Golden Horn, most nota ...
(the former name for Karaköy) on the northern shore of the Golden Horn.


History

The first recorded bridge over the Golden Horn was built during the reign of Justinian the Great in the 6th century, close to the area near the Theodosian Land Walls at the western end of the city. In 1453, before the
Fall of Constantinople The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 55-da ...
, the Turks assembled a mobile bridge by placing their ships side-by-side across the water, so that their troops could move from one side of the Golden Horn to the other. In 1502–1503, Sultan Bayezid II solicited plans for a bridge in the current location. Utilising three well-known geometrical principles, the pressed-bow, parabolic curve and keystone arch, artist
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
designed an unprecedented single span long bridge across the Golden Horn, which, had it been constructed, would have become the longest bridge span in the world. However, the ambitious design was not approved by the Sultan. Another Italian artist,
Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...
, was also invited to contribute a design but rejected the proposal, and the idea of building a bridge across the Golden Horn was shelved until the 19th century. During the bombing of Istanbul, the area was affected by the British bombs in 1918. In 2001 a small-scale version of Leonardo's bridge design was constructed near
Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...
,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
by the contemporary artist Vebjørn Sand, the first
civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...
project based on a Leonardo sketch ever to be constructed.


''Hayratiye'' bridge

In the early 19th century,
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 ...
(1808–1839) had a bridge built further up the Golden Horn, between Azapkapı and Unkapanı. This bridge, known as the Hayratiye (Benefaction in English), was opened on September 3, 1836. The project was carried out by Deputy Lord High Admiral Fevzi Ahmet Paşa using the workers and facilities of the naval arsenal at nearby Kasımpaşa. According to the History of Lutfi, this bridge was built on linked pontoons and was around long.


''Cisr-i Cedid'' bridge

In 1845 the first Galata Bridge at the mouth of the waterway (i.e. on the current site) was constructed out of wood at the request of the Valide Sultan, the mother of Abd-ul-Mejid I (1839–1861). It was known as the Cisr-i Cedid (New Bridge) to distinguish it from the earlier bridge further up the Golden Horn, which became known as the Cisr-i Atik (Old Bridge). The Baedeker's guidebook also referred to it as the Sultan Valideh Bridge. It continued in use for 18 years. On the Karaköy side of the bridge, an inscribed couplet by poet
İbrahim Şinasi İbrahim Şinasi Efendi (; 5 August 1826 – 13 September 1871) was a pioneering Ottoman Empire, Ottoman intellectual, founder of Turkish dramaturgy, author, journalist, translator, playwright, linguist and newspaper editor. He was the innovato ...
recorded that the New Bridge was built by Sultan Abdulmejid I who was the first to pass over it. The first to pass below it was the French captain Magnan in his ship the ''Cygne''. For the first three days, crossing the bridge was free. After that, a toll (''mürüriye'') was paid to the Naval Ministry. Toll-collecting started on November 25, 1845 and the following tolls were collected: *Free: military and law enforcement personnel, fire fighters on duty, clergy, *5 para: pedestrians, *10 para: people with backpacks, *20 para: load-bearing animals, *100 para: horse carriages, *3 para: sheep, goats or other animals Until 31 May 1930, this toll was collected by officials in white uniforms who stood at both ends of the bridge.


The second bridge

In 1863 this bridge was replaced by a second wooden bridge, built by Ethem Pertev Paşa on the orders of Sultan Abdulaziz (1861–1876) during the infrastructure improvements that preceded
Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...
's visit to Istanbul.


The third bridge

In 1870, a contract was signed with a French company, Forges et Chantiers de la Mediteranée for construction of a third bridge, but the outbreak of war between France and Germany delayed the project, which was given instead to the British firm G. Wells in 1872. This bridge, completed in 1875, was long and wide and rested on 24 pontoons. It was built at a cost of 105,000 gold
lira Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current Turkish lira, currency of Turkey and also the local name of the Lebanese pound, currencies of Lebanon and of Syrian pound, Syria. It is also the name of several former currencies, ...
s and was used until 1912 when it was towed upstream to replace the old Cisr-i Atik Bridge.


The fourth bridge

The fourth Galata Bridge (in Turkish usually known as ''Eski Köprü''; lit. "the old bridge") was built in 1912 by the German firm Hüttenwerk Oberhausen AG for 350,000 gold lira. This floating bridge was long and wide. The bridge was made of 12 individual pieces; 2 terrestrial pieces 17 meters in length, 9 pieces around 40 meters in length, and a central piece 66.7 meters in length, which made the bridge moveable. It was a tolled bridge until 1930. The fourth bridge contained bars and restaurants at its underside. It is usually described as an important place for the development of modern Turkish rock music, due to it housing the influential bar . Modern Turkish rock bands and singers such as Duman, MFÖ, Şebnem Ferah and Teoman have spent their formative years in Kemancı. In 1992 it was badly damaged in a fire and after one week towed up from its original location. At the time of the fire disaster, the fifth and the current bridge was already under construction near the fourth one and the fourth bridge was planned to be decommissioned in the near future. During the towing process one damaged section of the bridge collapsed. The bridge was classified as a
cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by socie ...
of the second degree by the Turkish authorities. 3 pieces of the bridge went missing after the towing. After repairs the remaining parts of the old bridge were repurposed between Ayvansaray- Hasköy in 2002. From July to October 2012 the bridge was opened for motor vehicles to ease the traffic flow on the Haliç Bridge, which was under renovation. Due to the fact that the bridge was not allowing ferries to pass, disrupting the water circulation and preventing the ongoing cleaning efforts at the Golden Horn the bridge's middle section was towed near the shoreline in 2012. After the second towing the former shops and restaurants were squatted by the homeless and the bridge was left in disrepair. In 2016 the majority of the bridge was transported to and
Tuzla Tuzla (, , ) is the List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, third-largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the administrative center of Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it has a population of 110,979 inha ...
shipyards. The remaining 50 meter section on the Hasköy/ Balat coast was left in disrepair.


The fifth (current) bridge

The fifth Galata bridge was built by the Turkish construction company STFA just a few meters away from the previous bridge, between Karaköy and Eminönü, and completed in December 1994. It was designed and supervised by GAMB (Göncer Ayalp Engineering Company). It is 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 ...
, which is long with a main span of . The deck of the bridge is wide and has two vehicular lanes and one walkway in each direction.
Tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
tracks running down the middle of it allow the T1 tram to run from
BaÄŸcılar BaÄŸcılar is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 23 km2, and its population is 740,069 (2022). It is located on the East Thrace, European side of Istanbul, near the ...
, in the western suburbs to Kabataş, a few blocks away from Dolmabahçe Palace. In 2003 a string of restaurants were added to the underside of the bridge in imitation of the more ramshackle ones that had clung to the underside of the fourth bridge.


Culture

The Galata Bridge has long acted as a symbolic link between the old city of Istanbul, site of the imperial palace and principal religious and secular institutions of the Ottoman Empire, and the modern districts of BeyoÄŸlu, where a large proportion of the inhabitants used to be non-
Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
s and where foreign merchants and diplomats lived and worked. As Peyami Safa wrote in his novel, ''Fatih-Harbiye'', a person who went from Fatih to Harbiye via the bridge passed into a different civilisation and culture. The bridge crops up in most late 19th-century accounts of Constantinople, perhaps most vividly in Edmondo De Amicis's ''Constantinople'' in which he describes the colourful array of characters from many races to be seen on it. The bridge also appears in
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...
's novel '' Orlando'' although it did not exist in the 16th century as the book suggests. It is sometimes suggested that the card game bridge acquired its name because the British soldiers who invented it used to cross the Galata Bridge on their way to favourite coffeehouses.


In popular culture

Geert Mak's short book, ''The Bridge'', published in 2008, is entirely devoted to the bridge and the many people who make a living in and around it. Apart from its place in fiction, the Galata Bridge's romantic appearance has made it the subject of many paintings and engravings. The opening chapter of British author Ben Elton's time-travelling novel ''Time and Time Again'' takes place on the Galata Bridge. Duman's first album ''Eski Köprünün Altında'' () and the album's first song ''Köprüaltı'' () mention the fourth bridge. The ''Istanbul Tales'' film of 2005 features the bridge in the last 10 minutes. Also showing the sections.


See also

* Atatürk Bridge * Haliç Bridge * Golden Horn Metro Bridge * Golden Horn * Galata Tower


References


External links

* * * * * * {{Bridges in Turkey Bascule bridges Bridges in Istanbul Ottoman bridges in Turkey Bridges completed in 1994 Golden Horn Fatih Buildings and structures in BeyoÄŸlu Road bridges in Turkey Former toll bridges in Turkey 1994 establishments in Turkey