Galata Bridge Walking Tour by Night, Istanbul, Türkiye (Turkey), [4k]

#istanbul #walkingtour #turkey
"The Galata Bridge (Turkish: Galata Köprüsü, Turkish pronunciation: [ˈɡaɫata cœpɾyˈsy]) is a bridge that spans the Golden Horn in Istanbul, Turkey. 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 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 (the former name for Karaköy) on the northern shore of the Golden Horn.
History
The first bridge on the Golden Horn, built by Justinian the Great, can be seen near the Theodosian Land Walls at the north-eastern end of the city in this rendering of old Constantinople.
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 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.
Golden Horn Bridge designed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1502
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 designed an unprecedented single span 280 m (920 ft) long bridge across the Golden Horn, which, had it been constructed, would have become the longest bridge span in the world.[1] However, the ambitious design was not approved by the Sultan.
Another Italian artist, Michelangelo, 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.
In 2001 a small-scale version of Leonardo's bridge design was constructed near Oslo, Norway by the contemporary artist Vebjørn Sand, the first civil engineering project based on a Leonardo sketch ever to be constructed.
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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 Beyoğlu, where a large proportion of the inhabitants used to be non-Muslims 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.[8] The bridge also appears in Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando although it did not exist in the 16th century as the book suggests.[9]
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.[10] 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.[11]
Duman's first album Eski Köprünün Altında (lit. 'Under the old bridge') and the album's first song Köprüaltı (lit. 'Underside of the bridge') mention the fourth bridge.
The Istanbul Tales film of 2005 features the bridge in the last 10 minutes. Also showing the sections." - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galata_...