Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge

Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge is a suspension bridge carrying road traffic across the Bosphorus in Istanbul, linking the European and Asian sides of the city. It is commonly referred to as the Second Bosphorus Bridge and was completed in the late 1980s to improve cross-strait traffic capacity.

The bridge forms part of the city’s O-2 motorway and carries multiple lanes of vehicular traffic in both directions. It sits north of the older Bosphorus Bridge and is a key piece of Istanbul’s road network, handling heavy commuter and intercity flows rather than pedestrian traffic.

Designed and constructed as a long-span suspension crossing, the bridge shortened travel times across the strait and helped redistribute traffic across northern connections. It remains one of several Bosphorus crossings that link Europe and Asia within the metropolitan area.

Geographically the bridge spans the Bosphorus at a point north of the historical city centre and south of the Black Sea entrance; it connects the European side to the Asian side across the strait within greater Istanbul.

• Also called Second Bosphorus Bridge: Also known as the Second Bosphorus Bridge, it is one of the fixed links carrying Istanbul's orbital motorway across the strait and is typically closed to pedestrians and cyclists.
• Traffic role: Opened in the late 1980s, it relieves traffic on the older, more central strait crossing and forms part of the city's heavy east-west road corridor.