Otto Ritter and Helmut Conu, two German architects hired by the Anatolian Railway, designed the terminal as the western terminus of the Baghdad and Hejaz railways. Construction started in 1906, and it was completed on August 19, 1909 and inaugurated on November 4, 1909. The article calls it neoclassical and also a pseudo-castle structure.
The site was reclaimed from the sea, and the foundation is 1,100 wooden piles, each 69 feet (21 m) long, driven in by steam hammer. German and Italian stonemasons made the facade embellishments. The article gives no overall dimensions.
A burning tanker on the Bosphorus damaged the terminal in 1979. On November 28, 2010, a fire during restoration destroyed the roof and the fourth floor. Long-distance service stopped in 2012 and suburban service in 2013, and the article reports plans to convert it into a hotel. The World Monuments Fund placed it on its 2012 Watch list.
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