Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge ceremony was held on 29 May 2013. The bridge was opened to traffic on 26 August 2016. At , the bridge is one of the tallest bridges in the world. It is, after the Millau Viaduct, the second-tallest bridge in the world of any type. The bridge is also one of the world's widest suspension bridges, at wide. The bridge is part of the projected Northern Marmara Motorway (), which will bypass urban areas of Istanbul in the north connecting Kınalı, Silivri in the west and Paşaköy, Hendek in the east. The bridge is in length with a main span
Millau Viaduct two days later on 16 December. The bridge has been consistently ranked as one of the great engineering achievements of all time, and received the 2006 Outstanding Structure Award from the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering. In the 1980s, high levels of road traffic near Millau in the Tarn valley were causing congestion, especially in the summer due to holiday traffic on the route from Paris to Spain. A method of bypassing Millau had long been considered, not only to ease the flow and reduce journey times for long distance traffic, but also to improve the quality of