"Transport: Grand rail project set to connect Europe with Asia
By Michael Kuser
Published: November 28 2005 17:22 | Last updated: November 28 2005 17:22
The earliest historical mention of ancient Byzantium comes from the Greek chronicler Herodotus, in a dispatch dealing with transport issues. Some 2,500 years ago, Darius, king of Persia, found himself and his army on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, prevented from pursuing a campaign on the European side. His chief engineer devised a pontoon bridge of small boats and the rest is history.
So many small vessels ply the waters in Istanbul today that they seem enough to enable one to skip across the waterway, from fishing boat to ferry to tanker to tug. But, in a city of 12m people, that is no way to move hundreds of thousands of daily commuters."
More:FT.com / World Reports / Turkey 2005 - Transport: Grand rail project set to connect Europe with Asia