More than 500 years ago Sultan Bayezid II wanted a design for a bridge to connect Istanbul with its neighbor city Galata. Leonardo da Vinci, already a well-known artist and inventor, came up with an amazing novel bridge design. In those days most masonry bridges were made in the form of conventional semi-circular arches, and would need 10 or more piers to support such a long bridge. Leonardo’s bridge concept, a flattened arch that would be tall enough to allow a sailboat to pass underneath with its mast in place, but that would cross the wide span with a single enormous arch. A team from MIT analyzed the design, possible construction methods, geological conditions of the time and concluded that the bridge would stand on its own under the force of gravity, without any fasteners or mortar to hold the stone together. Leonardo did not win the contract, but we know what a genius he was.