Longest suspension bridge opens in March 2022

For all you highway/bridge enthusiasts out there, maybe you missed the news of the recent opening of the longest bridge in the world, across the Dardanelles Strait in Turkey, like I did. Google Street view covered its approaches in February. Here’s the Wikipedia report:
The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge (Turkish: 1915 Çanakkale Köprüsü ), also known as the Dardanelles Bridge ( Çanakkale Boğaz Köprüsü ), is a road suspension bridge in the province of Çanakkale in northwestern Turkey. Situated just south of the coastal towns of Lapseki and Gelibolu, the bridge spans the Dardanelles strait, about 10 km (6.2 mi) south of the Sea of Marmara.[2] The bridge was officially opened by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 18 March 2022 after roughly five years of construction.[4] The year “1915” in the official Turkish name honours an important Ottoman naval victory against the British and the French during World War I.

The bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the world—with a main span of 2,023 m (6,637 ft), the bridge surpasses the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (1998) in Japan by 32 m (105 ft). It is the centrepiece of the planned 321-kilometre long (199 mi) US$2.8 billion Kınalı-Balıkesir Motorway, which will connect the O-3 and O-7 motorways in East Thrace to the O-5 motorway in Anatolia. [5]

The bridge is the first fixed crossing over the Dardanelles[6] and the sixth one across the Turkish Straits, after three bridges over the Bosphorus and two tunnels under it.[7]

Cool. Doubt I’ll ever see it though.

When the new Oakland span of the Bay Bridge opened in 2013 my wife and I drove across it on that first day. That was memorable.

A bridge that long has to take the curvature of the earth into consideration. If it were built flat, it wouldn’t last. Math doesn’t care about your beliefs.

When I was in Istanbul in 1980 I took a ferry across the Bosporus so I could say I had visited Asia. 5 minutes later I jumped on the return ferry. There were no bridges at the time.

I have since been to Asia and it looks a lot different.

Over the length of that bridge, the curvature of the earth represents a differential of about 32 centimeters from a straight line, or approximately one foot – a surprisingly large amount, really. Our planet isn’t all that big.

Another not so surprising thing: the recent Tour Of Turkey cycle race went over the newly opened bridge in order to show it off.

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This is amazing to me. I was in Istanbul in 1980 and there were only ferries to get across, I actually took one and stood on solid ground and then came back immediately just so I could say that I had been to Asia. I have since been to real Asia.

Is there an echo in here?

The first bridge across the Bosphorus in Instanbul was already in use well before 1980.