The last forty years of the city's history have been characterized by explosive growth. In 1950 Istanbul's population was officially reported to be just over one million; today that figure is over seven million, with unofficial estimates as high as ten or even twelve million.Fueled in large part by an influx of rural migrants in search of employment and better living conditions, the sprawling city now extends for miles along the European and Asian shores of the Sea of Marmara. Poorer neighborhoods, apartment buildings, and luxury villas line me hills along me Bosphorus. Each year the city spills ever further into Thrace and Anatolia; villages that even a decade ago retained a distinct identity are drawn inexorably into the city's economic and administrative orbit. The construction, during the 1980s, of two bridges across the Bosphorus linking Europe and Asia symbolized me emergence of this new, "greater" metropolitan Istanbul . New motor ways and arterials cut through the city, simultaneously imposing new physical barriers while facilitating further urban expansion. Modern, faster hydrofoils supplement traditional ferries enabling people to commute to the city from ever greater distances.