Etiket golden horn

Hilal Özdemir “I your faithful servant, understand that it has been your intention to erect a bridge from Galata to Stambul…” With these words Leonardo Da Vinci described in a letter to Sultan Bayezid II in 1502 how he would build the greatest single span bridge of the ancient world. Although some sources say that the letter found in the Topkapi Palace archives in 1952 was not in Da Vinci’s handwriting, a leather bound notebook belonging to him at Institute De France in Paris contains two different drawings, one of which is a bird’s-eye view, are explained in detail in Leonardo’s own hand: The bridge, which stretches from Pera to Constantinople, is 40 braccia (1 meter = 1.64 braccia) wide, 70 braccia high above the water, and 600 braccia long, in other words, 400 braccia over the water and 200 over land, and thus has its own abutments. When converted to modern measurements we see that Da Vinci’s description fits the Golden Horn which has an average width of 244 meters and 400 braccia over water is exactly 244 meters. The entire length would have been 600 braccia that corresponds to 365 meters. In the letter Da Vinci tells the Sultan that galleons with full sails would be able to pass under the bridge. Because, he says, the bridge will be standing 70 braccia above the water. That is 45 meters which would allow passage to the biggest vessels of the time. Probably because Sultan Bayezid II was not convinced that the project was feasible, the idea was dropped; until it was taken up by Norwegian artist Vebjorn Sand in 2000. Vebjorn built a replica of Da Vinci’s Golden Horn Bridge, but one fourth in size, as an overpass over the motorway connecting Oslo to the nearby town of Aas. […]