Modern Türkiye immortalises Çanakkale with the world's longest suspension bridge
With remarkably precise engineering detail, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan opened
the Çanakkale bridge on the 107th anniversary of the battle
The bridge took the title of the world's longest mid-span suspension bridge, overtaking the Akashi Kaikyo bridge in Japan
One engineering detail that caught observers' eyes is the span between its two towers, which measures 2023, a nod to the centenary of the modern Turkish Republic
founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923
As for its towers, they stand 318 metres tall, a reference to 3/18, the anniversary of the battle of Çanakkale
Another of the bridge's merits is that it links the Asian and European continents
and it cuts the journey between the two sides of the Çanakkale strait from 60 minutes by ferry to just 6 minutes
The engineers did not stop at bending the design to fit the date of that decisive battle and preserving its memory in a great monument that recalls Turkish heroism at the battle of “Çanakkale”, they also harnessed the very latest bridge-building technology and techniques to overcome natural forces such as wind and earthquakes.
The bridge of historic symbols has a total length of 4680 metres, and the distance between its two towers matches the centenary of the founding of the Republic of Türkiye. Its middle span reaches two thousand and 23 metres, which makes the “Çanakkale 1915” bridge holder of the title of “the world's longest mid-span bridge”.
Çanakkale, the last of the Ottoman victories
Çanakkale is regarded as one of the most epic battles ever fought
when the English and French fleets came together to destroy the area of the Çanakkale strait
backed by the armies of both New Zealand and Australia
but the Ottoman armies, made up of Turkish and Arab soldiers, managed to repel the assault and inflict more than 250 thousand dead and wounded on the attacking sides
and so the modern Turkish state keeps the memory of the battle of Çanakkale alive