Bridges - Sunday Stamps II

I have always had an interest in bridges. I crossed the Forth Railway Bridge when going to and from St Andrews University in Scotland. Where in the 1950s, there was a very heated debate in the Student Union about the need for a road bridge over the Forth. English students were howled down when they demanded to know why the Scots wanted another bridge - what had they done with the other three?

It was a pleasant surprise for me this week when I was given an album which contained among other things this FDC.

Great Britain - Opening of the Forth Road Bridge.

To my delight, on the 6d stamp, you can make out the structure of the Rail Bridge in the background.

Forth Road and Rail Bridges

On 5 March 2015 Royal Mail issued a set of ten stamps commemorating the engineering feats of bridge building dating from pre-1600 to as recently as 2011.

From left to right:

• Tarr Steps, a clapper bridge over the River Barle in the Exmoor National Park. The name clapper derives from the medieval Latin "claperius" - a pile of stones. The Royal Mail dates this as 'pre-1600.' It's now a scheduled ancient monument and dates from c1000BC

• Row Bridge is probably 18th century. It's a packhorse stone bridge over Mosedale Beck in what is now Cumbria.

• Pulteney Bridge spans the River Avon in Bath and dates from 1774. It features shops built across the full span on both sides.

• Craigellachie Bridge crosses the River Spey near Abelour, Moray, Scotland. Thomas Telford designed this cast iron arched bridge in 1814

• Menai Suspension Bridge (1826) is another of Telford's famous bridges. It connects the island of Anglesey with the Welsh mainland.

• High Level Bridge over the River Tyne (1849), carries road and rail traffic and is the wrought iron bridge between Newcastle and Gateshead

• Royal Border Bridge (1850) between Berwick-upon-Tweed and Tweedmouth is a railway viaduct designed by George Stephenson. Despite its name it is in Northumberland a few miles south of the Scottish border.

• Tees Transporter Bridge, Middlesbrough's icon, affectionately know as "The Tranny" is the bridge furthest down stream on the River Tees. This steel bridge passed its centenary in 2011.

• Humber Bridge is a single span suspension bridge carrying road traffic over the Humber which links Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Once the longest in the world it dates from 1981.

• Peace Bridge (2011) crosses the River Foyle in Derry, Northern Ireland.

Now you need to cross over and follow the links at Sunday-Stamps-II-39. to see bridges from elsewhere.