Leonardo Da Vinci - THE GALATA BRIDGE

The Galata bridge This model was made from the indications drawn from a very small drawing by Leonardo included in the Leicester manuscript.

The drawing shows a plan and an elevation view of the bridge, which has a single span approximately 240 metres in length, 23 metres in width, with a peak height of 40 metres above the level of water. A unique feature is the double supporting structure at the head of the bridge shaped like the tail of a sparrow for the purpose of better bearing transversal thrust. A feature worthy of notice is the sketch of a masted ship, smoothly Sailing under the central span of the bridge.

The drawing, which may be dated to between 1502 and 1503, illustrates the project for the construction of a single-span bridge over the Bosphorous. The idea may be traced back to when Leonardo was in Romagna, at the services of Cesare Borgia. The sketch was probably made in 1502, the year in which the ambassadors of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Bayazid II, had come to Rome to hire a team of Italian engineers who were to replace the old boat bridge on the Golden Horn with a new one with a more stable and long-lasting structure. In that very same period, Leonardo had come across a single-span bridge at Castel del Rio in Romagna, built by Andrea Ferrieri from Imola in the year 1499. The assumption that this could have been a project Leonardo planned to submit to the Sultan seems to be confirmed by a letter written in Turkish, which appears to be the translation of the letter in which Leonardo offered his services to the Ottoman sovereign.