When Arta joined Greece in 1881, the border with the Ottoman Empire crossed the bridge at its highest point, with custom houses on both ends of the bridge. The Greeks controlled the city but the Turks were still masters of the farmland on which many people of Arta depended for a living. The Sublime Porte developed an ambitious plan of establishing a new city on their side of the river, but failed to attract residents. The Greeks had to deal with many problems as they tried to market their produce. The custom duties were so high they could not export their goods to the Ottoman side, but it was also prohibitively expensive to carry them to Greek markets due to the lack of roads.