Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge

The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, also known as the Second Bosphorus Bridge (in Turkish: "Fatih Sultan Mehmet Köprüsü", "F.S.M. Köprüsü" or "2. Boğaziçi Köprüsü"), is a bridge in Istanbul, Turkey spanning the Bosphorus strait (Turkish: "Boğaziçi"). The bridge is named after the 15th century Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, who took Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453 and ended the Byzantine Empire.

Location

The bridge is situated between Hisarüstü (European side) and Kavacık (Asian side). It is a gravity-anchored suspension bridge with steel pylons and inclined hangers. The aerodynamic deck is hanging on double vertical steel cables. It is 1,510 m long with a deck width of 39 m. The distance between the towers (main span) is 1,090 m and their height over road level is 105 m. The clearance of the bridge from sea level is 64 m. Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge had the 6th longest suspension bridge span in the world when it was completed in 1988. At present, it has the 14th longest suspension bridge span in the world.

Construction

The bridge was designed by Freeman Fox & Partners, who had previously also designed the Bosphorus Bridge. An international consortium of three Japanese companies (including IHI Corporation and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries), one Italian and one Turkish company (STFA) carried out the construction works. The bridge was completed on July 3, 1988 and opened by Prime Minister Turgut Özal who drove his official car by himself as the first to pass. The cost of the bridge amounted to USD 130 million.

Transportation

It is on the Trans European Motorway between Edirne and Ankara. The highway bridge has four lanes for vehicular traffic plus one emergency lane in each direction. On weekday mornings, commuter traffic flows mostly westbound to the European part, so five of the eight lanes run westbound and only three eastbound. Conversely, on weekday evenings, five lanes are dedicated to eastbound traffic and three lanes only to westbound. No pedestrians are allowed to use the bridge. Nowadays, around 150,000 vehicles are passing daily in both directions, almost 65% being automobiles.

It is a toll bridge, and a toll plaza with toll booths is situated before the bridge on the European side. Toll is paid for one way passing from the European side to the Asian side. Since 1999, some of the toll booths, located to the far left as motorists approach them, are unmanned and equipped only with remote payment system (Turkish: OGS) in order to enable fast through passing. In addition to OGS, another toll pay system with special magnetic cards (Turkish: KGS) was put in service for use at specific toll boths in 2005.

Trivia

Jumping from the bridge is a rather common method to commit suicide. In 2001, 146 persons attempted to jump from the two Bosphorus bridges, and 24 of them lost their lives. In 2002, 38 persons died after 190 suicide attempts by jumping.

ee also

* The Bosphorus Bridge, also called the First Bosphorus Bridge, is located about 5 km south of this bridge.
* Turkish Straits
* Marmaray

External links

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* [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=0&ll=41.090737,29.058666&spn=0.018307,0.03931 Google aerial image of bridge]