Ephemera
Smyrna bridges
The Caravan Bridge used to be at the edge of the city, beyond which a range of cemeteries were laid out, only the Jewish one survives till today.
View around 1900.
This photograph taken of the same bridge in 1843, the earliest documented photograph from Smyrna.
This photograph clearly shows a more modest bridge, and the European style house in the background suggests it is from one of the outlying Levantine neighbourhoods of Smyrna.
A French pictorial newspaper showing the effects of a Smyrna earthquake, in Bournabat published in the French periodical ‘Le Monde Illustré’, published 11-9-1880, referring to the earthquake of 29th July. View article in publication:
The illustration from this publication resembles the second bridge, helping to pin it down. The church standing next to it is clearly the St Mary Magdalene Anglican Church that still stands in Bornova today. However today there is no sign of the bridges or the stream and a major road now goes along that former course. The building unlike the neighbouring house seems to have weathered the earthquake well, something that the region alas regularly suffers from - views of the 1928 earthquake.
The illustrator who drew these destroyed houses in Bournabat and mosque in Menemen etc. was probably not an eye witness, but as stated on the legend they are based on sketches of Mr Salzani (a member of one of the Levantine families of the city).
