Wender·Vista
Osmangazi Bridge
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileTurkey
across the Gulf of İzmit, between Istanbul and Bursa

Osmangazi Bridge

— — a long line drawn over the inland sea.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“A suspension bridge across the Gulf of İzmit, between Istanbul and Bursa. The main span is 1,550 metres; when it opened in June 2016 it was the fourth-longest in the world. The towers rise about 252 metres above the water. The drive south from Istanbul once took nine hours around the bay; it now takes three and a half. The Sea of Marmara opens west toward the Aegean.

from the studio
Osmangazi Bridge
— bring it home

Osmangazi Bridge, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Osmangazi Bridge

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

The Osmangazi Bridge crosses the Gulf of İzmit at its narrowest point, connecting Gebze in Kocaeli province on the northern shore with Altınova in Yalova province on the south. It opened on 30 June 2016 as the centrepiece of the 426-kilometre Gebze-İzmir Motorway. The bridge is named for Osman I, founder of the Ottoman dynasty, whose territory began in Söğüt, about 150 kilometres east. The Marmara region holds roughly a quarter of Turkey's population, and the crossing knits its two halves together.

— informed by Wikipedia
— the stone

The deck is suspended from two main cables strung between steel towers 252 metres tall, each a third taller than the Statue of Liberty's pedestal. The main span measures 1,550 metres, with side spans of 566 metres each, for a total length of 2,682 metres. IHI Corporation and Itochu of Japan led the construction; the cable-spinning method draws on the Akashi-Kaikyō engineering lineage. The bridge sits near the 1999 İzmit earthquake fault line and is built to withstand a magnitude 7.5 event.

— informed by Wikipedia
— the visit

The bridge is part of the tolled O-5 motorway, with toll collection by HGS or OGS electronic transponder; cash booths are not present. The crossing itself takes about a minute and a half at motorway speed. There is no pedestrian or cyclist access. The best photographs are taken from the Hersek peninsula on the southern shore, where a lagoon nature reserve sits directly beneath the deck and flamingos winter on the salt pans below.

— where
Turkey · Kocaeli and Yalova provinces, Marmara
— position
40.7445° N · 29.5191° E
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
1 km S
Hersek Lagoon
wetland nature reserve
18 km SE
Yalova
port city
45 km SE
İznik (Nicaea)
historic lakeside town
65 km S
Bursa
Ottoman first capital
5 km N
Gebze
industrial port city
N
Osmangazi Bridge
Hersek Lagoon
Yalova
İznik (Nicaea)
Bursa
Gebze
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Osmangazi Bridge — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

The bridge opened to traffic on 30 June 2016, after about three and a half years of construction. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan inaugurated it. The remainder of the Gebze-İzmir Motorway opened in stages, with the final section completed in August 2019.

The main span is 1,550 metres, making it the fourth-longest suspension-bridge span in the world at the time of opening. The Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge in Japan held first place at 1,991 metres; Çanakkale 1915, opened in 2022, has since surpassed both.

The name honours Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman dynasty, who established the beylik that grew into the empire around 1299. His tomb is in Bursa, and Söğüt sits not far east. The official short form is Osman Gazi Köprüsü.

The crossing reduces the Istanbul-to-İzmir drive from about nine hours to three and a half. Before the bridge, traffic skirted the Gulf of İzmit through Adapazarı or used the longer ferry routes from Yalova and Topçular.

Yes. The toll is collected electronically through the HGS or OGS systems used across Turkey's motorways; there are no cash booths. The crossing fee for a passenger car was around 700 Turkish lira in early 2025; rates change annually.

— about the piece in your home

It carries well for someone from Istanbul, Bursa, or anywhere on the Marmara coast, and for engineers, for whom this is a meaningful crossing. A Medium for an office wall or a Coaster Set for a kitchen lands warmly.

The clean linear geometry suits Modern Minimalist, Industrial, and Mid-century-modern rooms. It also pairs well with the blues of contemporary Coastal-modern, where the cable lines echo the horizon.

The long horizontal composition rewards width. A single Large above a console, a 4-tile Mural above a sofa, or a 9-tile Mural along a longer wall, which lets the cable curve breathe.

Yes, in Dura Satin or Matte. The colour is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, so the bridge holds its line under steam and splash. Glossy is fine for a dry wall.

A microfibre cloth with water. No abrasives, no solvents. The colour lives in the surface beneath a thin glossy finish, and ordinary household dust wipes off in seconds.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is painted in-house in Knoxville, Tennessee, by Reid Wender and the studio. Nothing is licensed, nothing is resold. The Osmangazi composition is the studio's own reading of the crossing.

— if this one stayed with you

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