The Ottomans bridge the Golden Horn

NIKI GAMM

How strange it seems that there was only one bridge over the Golden Horn until the Ottomans bridged it in 1836. In her book “The Remaking of Istanbul,” Zeynep Çelik writes that the first bridge over the Golden Horn was constructed in 1836 between Unkapanı and Azapkapı

View of Constantinople from Pera Across the Golden Horn. Luigi De Brocktorff

It seems very odd that the Byzantines only once thought of putting a bridge across the Golden Horn. The Romans could build such splendid aqueducts, but they didn’t build a bridge there. The Byzantines on the other hand did construct one in the sixth century during the reign of Justinian the Great. So why did the Ottomans wait until 1836 to finally build one linking Unkapanı and Azapkapı even though Fatih Sultan Mehmed had made a bridge across the Golden Horn by lashing his ships together so his troops could cross over during the siege of Constantinople?

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