FATIH SULTAN MEHMET BRIDGE

Description

Essentials about the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in brief

If you want to enjoy a beautiful view of the Bosphorus, you should cross the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge or Second Bosphorus Bridge. Named after Sultan Mehmed II, it is the second of three bridges in Istanbul that span the Bosphorus, connecting the European and Asian parts of the city. It was opened in 1988 and is located about five kilometers north of the (first) 15 July Martyrs Bridge of 1973.

The architecture of the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge

The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge is a suspension bridge with four lanes each separated by a median and a footpath on both sides. The bridge deck, which runs almost horizontally, connects the districts located on the high banks, while the districts directly on the shore lie deep below the bridge. It crosses the Bosphorus with a clear height of 64 meters, so that even large ships such as aircraft carriers and cruise ships can pass.

Unlike the first Bosphorus Bridge, its pylons are not on the shore of the Bosphorus, but on top of the high bank. Since the highway leading to the bridge extends to the pylons on both sides, there are no bridge spans outside the pylons, only the supporting cables stretching over 210 meters each from the pylons to the anchor blocks.

The total length of the structure measured from anchor block to anchor block is 1,510 meters. The span between the pylons is 1,090 meters. The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge thus has a bridge deck 16 meters longer than the 15 July Martyrs Bridge. Its steel pylons also have no substructure other than the foundations. They begin on the high bank just below the bridge deck and are therefore only 111 meters high (including the feet in the concrete bases). The bridge deck is 39 meters wide in total.

The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge was built by a consortium of three Japanese, one Italian and one Turkish company. The groundbreaking ceremony was held in May 1985. After three years of construction, the bridge was opened in July 1988.