バグダード鉄道
Although the Ottoman government, the "Porte", was financially unable to build what would later be the Baghdad Railway, Pressel succeeded in building Turkey's first railroad, which connected Istanbul to Izmit on the Marmara Sea. Pressel made it his goal to improve the antiquated methods of transportation available in the Ottoman Empire. However, the "Porte" declared bankruptcy in 1875, hindering his plans. In the late 1870s, Pressel succeeded in convincing Sultan Abdul Hamid II that the Baghdad Railway needed to be built. The sultan's concession was, in part, to improve morale after the crushing defeat by the Russians in 1877–78.