Exclusive Third Bridge Construction Photographs!

By Erin West

The infamous “Third Bridge” – officially Yavuz Sultan Selim Köprüsü – is currently under construction.

This controversial project is a favorite conversation topic among Istanbullus, so no doubt you’ve heard a lot of talk about it. Sometimes it can be difficult to differentiate between accurate information and gossip, so let’s briefly break this down to make sure we’re all on the same page.

Started in May 2013, the bridge will connect Garipçe in Sarıyer to Poyrazköy in Beykoz, allowing people to cross between the two continents at one of the northernmost points on the Bosphorus Strait, right below the Black Sea. It will be the third bridge to span the Bosphorus and, once completed, it will be the ninth longest suspension bridge in the world.

In 1995 Tayyip Erdoğan, then mayor of Istanbul, stated that the third bridge “would mean the murder of the city”. However, he has since changed his tune and is currently one of the bridge’s biggest proponents; it is an important piece of his self-described “mad” (çılgın) plan, which also includes a third airport and a canal running parallel to the Bosphorus, to develop the city. The government has argued that the bridge will go a long way in alleviating the massive traffic problem in Istanbul. Transportation, Maritime Affairs, and Communications Minister Binali Yıldırım declared, “The third bridge will relieve the journeys on the two bridges of being a torture and turn them into a pleasure… Traffic suffering on the bridges will come to an end.”

However, there are many critics of the bridge project. Some claim that a bridge will not solve the traffic problem (current traffic on the other two bridges only accounts for 2-3% of the total transit volume in the city), and argue that it will instead open up the northern districts of Istanbul to further development and an increase in population. In addition, ecologists and high-ranking members of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) have raised alarms about the ecological impact of the construction, even calling it a “massacre” of Istanbul’s northern forests.

There are numerous intelligent and well-thought-out articles about the bridge and other development projects in Istanbul. You can find arguments in support of the project (here) and scathing critiques of both the bridge and the current approach to urban development (for example, here and here). Where do I stand? Well, with so much already written, I find myself with little to add to the policy debate. But I can provide a glimpse of what is happening on the ground and how the bridge has collided with my normal routine.

The majority of the construction on the European side will occur in the Belgrade Forest. This forest is a beloved weekend destination for those who need to break out of the concrete jungle and want to bike, walk, or run on one of the many wooded trails. I run with a group there every weekend, and one of the more remote trails we follow goes right through the construction of the third bridge and the road to which it will connect. (Or rather, the construction goes right through the trail). When I first saw the construction site, it was a cloudy and generally gloomy day. The site was so eerie I knew I had to come back and photograph it. Online, there are mostly aerial views of the construction. However, these photos come to you from a first-hand, personal perspective.

What about you? What do you think of the third bridge project? Has it affected you in any way?

Looks like someone took a razor to this hill.

The intersection of the trail and the new road. Bikers: “Where’s the forest?”