28 May 2021, Eda:

The bridges as they provide a surface on water; are used for many different purposes besides crossing between two banks.

Being on the water gives an opportunity for fishing especially, and in Galata Bridge of İstanbul, you may see that the sides of the bridge are filled with many fishermen, who are settled there with their foldable chairs, buckets, fishing rods, and usually a wooden device that enables you to leave your rod (you may find this device is highlighted in the ?th post). In Luzern it is also possible to come across fishermen, though they are not lined on the bridges; I’ve stumbled upon them usually on the banks of Reuss. And they don’t seem very settled in the place that they cast their line, it is just them and their rod, they seem more mobile comparing to the fishermen on Galata Bridge.

Another occasion that a bridge provides is the scenery. Bridges are always very popular places to take photographs as they give a remarkable vista. In many people’s archives, there are such photographs. If you visit a foreign city that water separates in two, then probably there’s a bridge and very likely you have a photograph of yourself and/or your loved ones on the bridge, or you took a photo of the city from that bridge. That action makes the bridge railings an important component of many photographs,

That is also valid for Luzern, where there are many bridges that cross between the opposite banks of Reuss. A sweet coincidence that we shared before, Dilara’s father had taken a picture of their family when they were visiting Luzern. It is lovely to see the same railings today; a probable background element of many old photographs. This wouldn’t be possible for Galata Bridge as the bridge has been rebuild many times, the one that is in use now dates back to 1994, it was constructed because the fire in 1992 made the previous bridge non-utilisable. The new railings resemble the old ones, but they are not the same.

Luzern photos are taken by Eda and İstanbul photographs are by Dilara. The old image of Galata Bridge is found from SALT research archive and the one from Luzern is from Tekin family archive :)