Online Encyclopedia
Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge
The Fatih Sultan Bridge, also known as the Second Bosporus Bridge (in Turkish: Fatih Sultan Mehmet Köprüsü or 2. Boğaziçi Köprüsü), is a bridge in Istanbul, Turkey spanning the Bosporus strait (Turkish: Boğaziçi). 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 (World rank 2004: 11th) and their height over road level is 105 m. The clearance of the bridge from the sea level is 64 m, to allow passage to the aircraft carrier Enterprise and the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II, the tallest ships afloat.
An international consortium of three Japanese companies, one Italian and one Turkish company carried out the construction. It 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.
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.
Jumping from the bridge is a rather common method to commit suicide. In 2001, 146 persons attempted to jump from the two Bosporus bridges, and 24 of them lost their lives. In 2002, 38 persons died after 190 suicide attempts by jumping.
The Bosporus Bridge, called also the First Bosporus Bridge, is located about 5 km south of this bridge.