The bridge has a great atmosphere, crowds, food vendors selling corn in the cob, shops on the underpass selling all your designer fake, the bridge has restaurants on the walkway underneath and local fishermen catching fish to sell direct to the restaurants. The views in the evening as the sun goes down is amazing.
But beware. On the bridge you will find the shoe shine guys. They have a trick whereby they walk past you and drop a brush, you then pick it up and alert them. They thank you most graciously and offer a free shine and then to whomever is with you. They then tell you of their family and ask for money at the end. I seen this happen several times and when it happened to me I lifted the brush and walked off with it, he then came running to me and I offered to sell him a new brush, supply and demand, commerce at its simplest. I gave him the brush back and not a single lira was conned out of me.
Another Tip: Check to see if you need a Visa. From UK travellers this is £20 Bank of England notes only or 25€. If you don’t have this then the exchange booths will help but the rates are not good. I fell into this trap and it took 30min to resolve, by which time I then passed through passport control to find the baggage carousel had closed and it then took 20min to find my bag at the uncollected desk.