STAMP STORIES BRIDGES

Southland Times, Issue 22915, 13 June 1936, Page 21 (Supplement)

STAMP STORIES BRIDGES

(By

R. J. G. Collins)

Several of the outstanding feats of modern engineering have been concerned with the erection of ■bridges. Armies of workmen are at present labouring to erect mammoth bridges over arms of the San Francisco harbour, and we are promised special commemorative stamps when the erection is completed. In the meantime, however, our albums already portray many interesting examples of men’s continued effort to conquer Nature. The earliest form of bridge, a ■fallen tree trunk, has not been a

’subject of a stamp design, but in the French Cameron set of 1925. a primitive form of suspension bridge is to be found; contrast this with the enormous modern structure which spans the Zambesi river on the other side of Africa. The Zambesi bridge which links Portuguese Mozambique with British Nyasaland, has 33 main, seven intermediate, and six approach spans, with a total length of more than 12,000 feet, and its erection was even a greater exploit than that of the Sydney bridge. The Zambesi bridge is featured ppon a special commemorative stamp of Mozambique, issued on August 1 last, and the opening of the Sydney brid e was commemorated by four stamps, which appeared on March 14, 1932. The Republic of Dominica, in the West Indies, has lately completed three important bridges, two of the suspension type and one in Steel and concrete in three spans. In each instance the opening has been commemorated by means of stamps, the designs of which effectively portray the several bridges..

A pontoon bridge, familiar in war time, has only once been shown ton a stamp—in the Rumanian ■issue of 1914, showin® troops passIng over the Danube. Two of the Stamp bridges were the outcome of the Great War. A modern steel bridge over the Jordon linking Palestine and the Territory of Trans-Jordon, bears the name of Allenby, the British General who was successful against the Turks in Palestine and with whom many New Zealanders saw service. Then there is the memorial bridge over [the Mena river at Ypres, at one end of which there is the great memorial to British troops—The iMenin Gate.

For a picture of the world’s best (known bridge, Tower Bridge, London, we have to turn to the label [which was issued at the time of (the International Air Post Exhibition at London in May, 1934, and it is to be regretted that up to the present the famous Forth bridge has not been depicted on any etamp. Of simple types we find a small road bridge on the 2|d Jamaica of 1923, and a canal bridge on the Belgian issue of 1929. Railway bridges of various types are to be found among the issues of Abyssinia, Turkey, Belgian Congo, Guatemala, Eritrea, and the

trestle form on the French Somali Coast issue of 1915. An example of a single-span stone bridge, is found in the Grand Lebanon set of 1925, and stone viaducts appear on the issues of Luxemburg, Monaco and of French Middle Congo. The bridge near Niagara Falls was depicted on the U.S.A, set of 1901, while the bridge near the Ripon Falls was included in the design of one value of the rece-.t pictorial issue for Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika,