Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today inaugurated the world’s longest suspension bridge over the Dardanelles Strait in northwestern Turkey.
Officials said the new bridge would cut the link between Europe and Asia by six minutes.
The new Canakale Bridge cost 2.5 billion euros to build, which was realized by a Turkish-Korean consortium.
With a distance of 2,023 kilometers between the two main towers, it becomes longer than the record holder, the Akashi Kaikio bridge in Japan.
Today’s inauguration coincided with the 107th anniversary of the Ottoman naval victory over the British and French at Gallipoli in World War I.
Erdogan cited the battle in his speech, saying the bridge “will keep alive the memory of the Dardanelles martyrs.”
President Erdogan has often promoted giant infrastructure projects in Turkey, such as the third bridge over the Bosphorus, despite criticism of the debt from the opposition.
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