The bridge was opened in October 2001. The bridge has received solid media coverage in Norway and in the rest of the world. In the United States, the bridge has been featured in CNN, Washington Post, The New York Times and Time Magazine. Leonardo da Vinci presented a miniature model of the bridge in 1502 that was originally designed by the Turkish sultan Bayezid II and intended to cross the Golden Horn at the Bosporos-Strait. The bridge was originally supposed to be 240 metres long.
