Vintage tram
The famous vintage tram of Istiklal Street is not as ancient as it may seem. Well, the tram cars are ancient dating back to 1920s but its track is not. The tram service in European Side of Istanbul had come to an end in 1961, when they were replaced by buses and their tracks were surfaced upon. In 1992, the city council decided to pedestrianize Istiklal Street after the opening of a new and wider parallel avenue- which costed the city several hundred historical buildings. After the motorized vehicles were banned from the street, its tarmac was shelled out and new tracks for ancient tram were laid down.
Totally pedestrianized save for police cars, garbage trucks, cars belonging to consulates, and, of course, the vintage tram Istiklal Street Ä°stiklal Caddesi, also variously interpreted as âIstiklal Avenueâ or âIstiklal Boulevardâ is the main thoroughfare of BeyoÄlu area. Istiklal Street technically connects three squares: Taksim in the north, the biggest of three, Tünel Square in the south, and Galatasaray Square in the middle, the smallest one, actually nothing more than a simple widening of the street. Total length of the street is about 2 km, and squares are located about 1 km away from each other.
The easiest way to get to Istiklal Street from Karaköy on the shore of Golden Horn is to take Tünel funicular: the second oldest urban underground railway in the world after Londonâs Underground which date back to 1875. Although the distance travelled is rather short between its sole two stations a whopping 573 meters, which perhaps make it also the title winner for being the shortest metro line of the planet, it beats the effort one has to make to climb up the steep slope between the aforementioned locations. For its lower station, look for the sign Tünel on the side of a building just over the Galata Bridge on the western side of the street. It costs TL 2.50/person one-way and departs every 5 minutes M-Sa 7AM-10:30PM, Su 7:30AM-10:30PM.
