Turkey builds massive bridge linking Europe and Asia | Technology

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The president of Turkey, South Korea’s key minister and other officers inaugurated a large suspension bridge Friday around the Dardanelles Strait that connects the European and Asian shores of the key waterway.

With a a 2,023-meter (6,637 feet) span concerning its towers, the “1915 Canakkale Bridge” will become the world’s longest suspension bridge, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan explained.

It connects the city of Gelibolu, located in the European side of Turkey’s northwestern province of Canakkale, with the city of Lapseki on the Asian side. The bridge will allow vacationers to cross the Dardanelles — which connects the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara — in just six minutes compared to the past 1 1/2 several hours by ferry, the president mentioned.

“Turkey has overtaken Japan, which has the longest bridge in the world in terms of the midspan, and has taken the first position,” Erdogan explained through the inauguration ceremony.

The inauguration was timed to coincide with the 107th anniversary of Turkey’s Planet War I naval victory more than a joint British and French fleet attacking the Dardanelles. The failure of the naval marketing campaign led to the sick-fated 1915 landings on the Gallipoli peninsula by the allies led by Britain and France alongside with troops from Australia and New Zealand.

“The 1915 Canakkale Bridge will leave this heritage of collision and conflict driving and will be a bridge among East and West, beginning a new period of peace and prosperity,” South Korean Key Minister Kim Boo-kyum reported through the ceremony, in reference to the Canakkale region’s historic battlefields.

The bridge, which was establish by a consortium of Turkish and South Korean corporations, will also bolster the bonds between Turkey and South Korea, Kim explained.

The “1915 Canakkale Bridge” price 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) to make but Turkey will conserve 415 million euros ($458 million) for every 12 months from a reduction of gas intake and carbon emissions, Erdogan said. He introduced the bridge’s toll will be 200 Turkish lira ($13.60).

The bridge’s architecture is awash with symbolism. It is central span of 2,023 meters (6,637 feet) is in recognition of the year 2023, when Turkey celebrates the centenary of the founding of the Turkish Republic next the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Erdogan stated. The top of the bridge’s towers is 318 meters (1,043 feet) — a nod to March 18 (or 3/18) when Turkey commemorates soldiers killed in the course of the Gallipoli sea and land battles.

The World War I Gallipoli campaign aimed to safe a naval route from the Mediterranean Sea to Istanbul through the Dardanelles, and take the Ottoman Empire out of the war. The April 25, 1915 Gallipoli landings marked the start of a fierce battle that lasted for eight months. Close to 44,000 Allied troops and 86,000 Ottoman troopers died in the fighting.