It was a long-standing dream—not only of Ersin Arıoğlu, but of a nation. Could a suspension bridge someday cross the Dardanelles Strait in Turkey and provide another link between Europe and Asia? “To build a highway suspension bridge over the Çanakkale Strait has been on the agenda of the Turkish Ministry of Public Works for the last 20 years,” Arıoğlu, co-founder of contractor Yapi Merkezi, wrote in a technical paper.
That was in 1994. Almost 30 years later, the dream is coming true, in a record-breaking way. The 1915Çanakkale Bridge, rapidly nearing completion, will have a main span of 2,023 meters, edging out Japan’s Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, which has a 1,992-m-long main span. The two distinctive red-and-white towers—reflecting Turkey’s flag—have a height of 334 m, the tallest in the world for suspension bridges. But the bridge is about more than breaking records. It’s a symbol of Turkey’s embattled past and a link to its hoped-for peaceful and prosperous future.