This new suspension bridge in Turkey, which spans the bustling Dardanelles river, has officially been designated as the world’s longest suspension bridge. Erdogan, the Turkish president, officially dedicated the 2,023-metre-long tower, which cost £2.1 billion ($2.8 billion) and was completed earlier this month at a cost of £2.1 billion ($2.8 billion).
The Çanakkale Bridge, built in 1915, was named after a significant Ottoman victory against British and French soldiers in the region. With its 1,992 meter length, it surpasses the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan as the world’s longest suspension bridge. It links Turkey’s European and Asian shorelines and takes the title of world’s longest suspension bridge from it.
Commuting between the Turkish cities of Lapseki on the Asian side of the Dardanelles Strait and Sütlüce on the European side might take up to an hour and a half on a good day. These boats may take up to five hours to travel on certain days, depending on how packed the system is.
Travelers will be able to speed over the strait in just six minutes flat now, owing to the completion of a new suspension bridge spanning the strait this month. Due to the 1915 conflict that took place at the strait during World War I, this construction is known as the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge. It now holds the world record for the longest suspension bridge in the world, as measured by the distance between its two towers.
It is said that the Çanakkale Bridge, built in 1915, is significant for both its symbolic and technical value. Here’s how it adds up in terms of numbers, to summarize.
A suspension bridge’s entire length and the longest span of its suspension are the two most important statistics to bear in mind while calculating its overall length and the length of its longest span of suspension. In this particular instance, the Turkish bridge measures 15,118 feet in length throughout its whole length. Prior to the construction of the Çanakkale Bridge in 1915, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan had the distinction of being the world’s longest suspension bridge in terms of both span and overall length. It links the islands of Honshu and Awaji and has a total length of slightly under 13,000 feet with a maximum span of 6,532 feet, which is the longest in the world.
In addition to outdistancing the Akashi Kaikyo bridge in terms of overall length, the 1915 Çanakkale bridge also has the largest span, with a distance between towers of 6,637 feet, beating it out by a big shot. Turkey’s 100th anniversary of the fall of the Ottoman Empire is also commemorated by this length of 2,023, which is also the country’s official length.
According to Brian Brenner, a professor at Tufts University who studies the structural engineering of bridges, when it comes to deciding on the type of bridge design to use to span such vast distances, it’s no surprise that both Turkey and Japan chose a suspension bridge to cross their respective rivers.
Suspension bridges are the structural forms that can cross the greatest distances, according to him in an email. It is generally possible to build a suspension bridge over bodies of water with busy maritime traffic in a manner that minimizes the effect on boating below while the bridge is being constructed, which is a benefit.
The benefit of using a suspension bridge for constructing across rivers, according to Brenner, is that it necessitates the use of fewer structural supports to drill into either hard material such as rock or deeply into the waterway’s bottom.
He also points out that they are just iconic. Because, after all, it’s impossible to visualize San Francisco without thinking about the Golden Gate Bridge, which spans the San Francisco Bay.
The height of the bridge’s towers is commensurate with the other iconic components of the Çanakkale Bridge, which was built in 1915. This height of 318 meters (approximately 1,043 feet) is meant to represent the date of March 18, which not only commemorates the opening of the bridge but also the day on which Turkey commemorates naval losses at Gallipoli during World War I. The bridge was built to represent the date of the bridge’s completion.
Brenner, on the other hand, believes that the height of the tower has technical value as well.
According to Brenner, as the span lengthens, the forces acting on the bridge and the dimensions of the bridge rise. So the towers must be higher in order to accommodate the cables.”
With enormous height and length comes considerable expense, at least in the case of the Çanakkale Bridge, which was built in 1915. The building of this bridge, which was first suggested in 2017, has cost €2.5 billion, or around $2.7 billion, and has been carried out by both Turkish and South Korean enterprises, respectively. A crossing over the bridge would cost 200 Turkish Lira, or little less than $14, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan.
Erdoan has said that he anticipates a significant return on investment when it comes to fuel consumption savings from crossing the strait more effectively. According to Erdoan, this may amount to €415 million or $458 million euros in savings each year if the bridge is completed on time.
Although the Çanakkale Bridge, built in 1915, now holds the world record for the longest suspension bridge, Brenner believes the bridge should not be allowed to rest on its laurels. The Strait of Messina Bridge, which was planned in 2009 to link mainland Italy with the island of Sicily, would be almost twice as long as the Çanakkale Bridge, which was built in 1915. The Italian bridge project, on the other hand, has encountered several difficulties along the road and does not yet have a predicted completion date.
It doesn’t matter who takes over as monarch next; Brenner believes that future suspension bridges seeking to cover greater distances may need a different design in order to reduce their vulnerability to risk factors such as wind.
In his opinion, “it is possible that engineers are beginning to approach the span length limit for a classic suspension bridge, such as that which has been planned for the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, and other suspension bridges.” He does, however, point out that many engineers are looking at other designs and structural arrangements as a result of this.
The use of a “hybrid” design, according to Brenner, is one option being considered. This design would incorporate the characteristics of both suspension and cable-stayed bridges. A method like this, which is more durable than suspension alone, may be the answer to the question of how to create even longer bridges in the future.
