CONSTANTINOPLE,
which spans both sides of the Bosporus in Europe and Asia, is the chief city and port and former capital of Turkey. Founded as Byzantium by Greeks in 660 B.C., the city became an important trading center and was conquered by Rome. Constantine the Great changed the city's name to Constantinople in 330 A.D. and made it the capital of the Byzantine Empire. The Turks captured the city in 1453 and it was the capital ("Sublime Porte") of the Ottoman Empire until 1922. The Asiatic part of the city was the British Army Base in the Crimean War and the site of Florence Nightingale's hospital. The city was renamed Istanbul in 1930. A horse tram system was opened on Sept. 3, 1869. There were electric tram systems on both sides of the Bosporus. The European network operated from Aug. 16, 1913 until Aug. 12, 1961, the Asian lines from 1928 until Nov. 11, 1966. A heritage tramway opened in Istanbul in 1990. The postcard shows a tram on the Galatea Bridge with St. Sophia in the background.

SMYRNA,
now called Izmir, is Turkey's third largest city and its most important Asian port. Located at the head of the Gulf of Izmir it is an ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine city. Smyrna was occupied by Greeks in 1919 and recaptured by the Turks in 1922. It was destroyed by fire in September, 1922, and earthquakes in 1928. There were two horse tram lines: one 8.5 kms. long and and another of only 1.5 km. The electric tram system, which opened on Oct. 18, 1928, ran from the Parc de la Caserne to the suburb of Resadiye. It closed in 1954. The postcard shows one of the new electric cars in 1928.






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