The "Canakkale 1915 bridge", 4.608 km long and with a span [distance between the two piles] of 2.023 km, is the first to span this arm of the sea of about sixty kilometers which connects the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmora.
The work, at a total cost of 2.5 billion euros, comes on top of the three other Istanbul bridges forming the link between the two continents and will connect Eastern Thrace to Anatolia by bypassing Istanbul.
The fighting, which lasted until January 1916, resulted in the victory of the Ottoman Empire against British and French troops.
This bridge is "a way of keeping the memory of the martyrs of Canakkale alive", President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday in his inauguration speech.
In addition to this bridge, the Turkish president has supervised since coming to power - first as prime minister from 2003 to 2014, then as president - the construction in Istanbul of a tunnel under the Bosphorus, a third bridge spanning it and a colossal airport.
Mr. Erdogan also launched in June the construction of the "Istanbul Canal" project, a gigantic 45 km canal parallel to the Bosphorus Strait decried by the opposition and environmentalists.
© 2022 AFP