Haliç Bridge

Haliç Bridge is a highway bridge on the Golden Horn (Turkish: Haliç) in Istanbul, Turkey. It connects the neighborhoods of Ayvansaray in the southwest and Halıcıoğlu in the northwast. The bridge carries the motorway .

It was constructed between 1971 and 1974, and entered service on 10 September 1974. The engineering firms which undertook the construction works were IHI Corporation of Japan and Julius Berger-Bauboag AG of Germany.

The bridge has a length of 995 m (3,264 ft), a width of 32 m (105 ft), and a height of 22 m (72 ft) above sea level.

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Golden Horn

The Golden Horn (Turkish: Altın Boynuz; Ancient Greek: Χρυσόκερας, Khrysókeras; Latin: Chrysoceras), also known by its modern Turkish name as Haliç, is a major urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey.

Notably falcate and anfractuous, this prominent waterbody is a horn-shaped estuary that joins Bosphorus Strait at the immediate point where said strait meets the Sea of Marmara, thus forming a narrow, isolated peninsula, the tip of which is "Old Istanbul" (ancient Byzantion and Constantinople), and the promontory of Sarayburnu, or Seraglio Point. The Golden Horn geographically separates the historic center of Istanbul from the rest of the city, and forms a natural, sheltered harbor that has historically protected Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other maritime trade ships for thousands of years.

While the reference to a "horn" is understood to refer to the inlet's general shape, the significance of the designation "golden" is more obscure, with historians believing it to refer to either the riches brought into the city through the bustling historic harbor located along its shores, or to romantic artistic interpretations of the rich yellow light blazing upon the estuary's waters as the sun sets over the city. Its Greek and English names mean the same, while its Turkish name, Haliç, simply means "estuary", and is derived from the Arabic word khaleej, meaning "gulf".

Bridge

A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles without closing the way underneath such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle. There are many different designs that each serve a particular purpose and apply to different situations. Designs of bridges vary depending on the function of the bridge, the nature of the terrain where the bridge is constructed and anchored, the material used to make it, and the funds available to build it.

Etymology

The Oxford English Dictionary traces the origin of the word bridge to an Old English word brycg, of the same meaning. The word can be traced directly back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰrēw-. The word for the card game of the same name has a different origin.

History

The first bridges made by humans were probably spans of cut wooden logs or planks and eventually stones, using a simple support and crossbeam arrangement. Some early Americans used trees or bamboo poles to cross small caverns or wells to get from one place to another. A common form of lashing sticks, logs, and deciduous branches together involved the use of long reeds or other harvested fibers woven together to form a connective rope capable of binding and holding together the materials used in early bridges.