High Level Bridge Stamp Highlights Engineering Excellence
The High Level Bridge, linking Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Gateshead, features on a newly launched set of stamps celebrating UK engineering triumphs.
The High Level Bridge, linking Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Gateshead, features as a first class stamp on newly launched Royal Mail stamps.
And Royal Mail vans working locally in Newcastle and Gateshead and crossing the bridge every day will also carry an image of the stamp.
The Bridges stamp issue is aimed at celebrate the leaps in engineering that have seen the UK’s bridges evolve from humble stone crossings to dramatic and symbolic landmarks.
Linking Newcastle-upon-Tyne with Gateshead, the High Level Bridge is one of the most innovative and visually powerful bridges created during Britain’s Railway Age.
This two-tier 408-metre-long bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson to carry road and rail traffic at a high level across the Tyne and allow tall-masted shipping below, is a hymn to the strength, utility and robust beauty of cast iron, used in combination with stone and wrought iron.
The tall piers, up to 40 metres high, are made of local sandstone, which possesses great compressive strength and is able to withstand damp, while the iron bow-string girders forming the spans of the bridge use cast iron for components that are in compression and wrought iron for elements that require tensile strength.
The other bridges featured on the stamps are: Tees Transporter Bridge (Middlesbrough); Tarr Steps (Exmoor); Row Bridge (Lake District); Pulteney Bridge (Bath); Thomas Telford’s Craigellachie Bridge (Moray); Pont Grog y Borth / Menai Suspension Bridge; Robert Stephenson’s High Level Bridge (Newcastle/Gateshead); Royal Border Bridge (Berwick-upon-Tweed); and the Humber Bridge.
Andrew Hammond, Head of Stamps and Collectibles at Royal Mail, said: “The story of Britain’s engineering genius can be found in its bridges. These new stamps celebrate ten beautiful and ground-breaking landmarks that span centuries of our history.”
Royal Mail will also be issuing a special postmark on 5 March to mark the stamp set along with Royal Mail Vans in each bridge location carrying an image of the new stamp.