Infrastructure

1915 Çanakkale Bridge: World’s Longest Suspension Bridge

The gigantic bridge is located south of the Sea of Marmara in Turkey.

Updated on

March 19, 2024

The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge. PHOTO | COURTESY

Situated in the Çanakkale Province of Turkey, the 1915 Canakkale Bridge, which opened in March 2022, holds the title of the world’s longest suspension bridge.

Constructed in just five years, the bridge flaunts a main span of 2,023 metres – surpassing Japan’s Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, with a main span of 1,992 metres.

The 1915 Canakkale Bridge links Gelibolu town on the European side of Turkey’s northwestern Canakkale province, with the town of Lapseki on the Asian side.

It enables travellers to cross the Dardanelles — connecting the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara — in just six minutes, as opposed to 90 minutes by ferry.

“Turkey has overtaken Japan, which has the longest bridge in the world in terms of the midspan, and has taken the first place,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during the inauguration of the bridge.

The architecture of the bridge, named after a significant Ottoman naval victory against the British and the French during World War I, is filled with symbolism.

Its 2,023-metre central span commemorates Turkey’s centenary celebration in 2023 to mark the founding of the State after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Designed by consulting group COWI, the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge was built by a consortium of Turkish and South Korean companies for $2.7 billion.

According to COWI, the bridge’s location presented many design challenges, such as high winds and high seismic activity. Its aerodynamic stability is partly achieved through the use of a twin-box girder.

“The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge has been a fantastic project to work with,” COWI’s project director Inger Birgitte Kroon said at the close of the project.

“Not just for all the technical challenges that we as engineers love but also for the strong collaboration with DLSY, the owner and other involved parties,” she added.

“Only with a collaborative mindset from all parties has it been possible to design and construct a world record suspension bridge in less than five years.”

The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge is connected to the Malkara-Çanakkale Motorway and serves as a crucial component of the 101-kilometre route.

The motorway with the bridge includes 4 viaducts, 12 intersections, 55 bridges and overpasses, 40 underpasses, 238 culverts of various sizes, 4 highway service facilities, 2 maintenance operation centres and 7 toll stations.

Suspension bridges usually feature decks suspended from vertical ties or suspension cables, attached to tensile cables slung between towers.

They use a combination of steel cables and wire ropes to support their weight, creating a network of tension that distributes the load across the structure.

This design enables suspension bridges to span long distances with lightness and flexibility, making them ideal for crossing deep valleys or bodies of water.