500 Years Later, MIT Proves That Leonardo Da Vinci’s Bridge Design Works

Researchers at MIT have proven Leonardo da Vinci correct yet again, this time involving his design for what would have been at the time a revolutionary bridge design.

Although clients rejected da Vinci’s work at the time, over 500 years later, the researchers have proven that his bridge would have worked.The famed Renaissance Man made his living working with wealthy patrons—people like Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, who commissioned his painting “The Last Supper.”

But da Vinci did not want to limit himself to Italian patrons. When Sultan Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire put out a request for proposals for a bridge connecting capital city Constantinople (now Istanbul) with its neighbor city Galata, da Vinci was eager for the chance to win the contract.