Turks like to think of Istanbul as the place where Europe and Asia meet and their country as a bridge between the two continents. In fact, one of the bridges that crosses Istanbul's Bosphorus Straits -- the body of water that divides "east" and "west" -- has a large sign that tells drivers coming over from the Asian side, "Welcome to Europe."
Having two bridges that span Europe and Asia have provided Turkey with the opportunity to put on truly "intercontinental" events, be it a ping pong match that was played on the middle of one of them, or (the never realized) plan to have rock stars U2 play a concert on the same bridge.
Every year, Istanbul also holds a marathon that lets runners start in Asia and then cross the city's Bosphorus Bridge and end up in Europe. For the event, the bridge is closed to traffic and pedestrians are invited to join the runners and walk across the bridge.
As the Hurriyet Daily News reports, though, it appears that the sheer amount of foot traffic across the bridge might have led to a potentially catastrophic situation. The article (with video of a swaying bridge) can be found here.
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