Bridges, Bridges, Bridges! On Stamps

Next to the town of Dolni Loucky, not far from Brünn, now in the Czech republic, there are two viaducts crossing the Loucka valley. Between them there is a tunnel. The viaduct with the large span was chosen as motif for the second stamp of 1955 praising engineering and construction achievements.


(Hi Nells, Nice to see you back, Thanks for trying. Alexey always finds everything. K.)

Nusle Bridge is a viaduct in Prague. It spans the Nusle Valley and connects the Pankrác district and south-eastern parts of the city, as well as the D1 motorway with the central part of the city. Construction began in 1967, and it opened on 22 February 1973. The structure's vital statistics are equally impressive: up to 43 meters high, 485 meters long, and 27 meters wide.
The bridge also has a darker side, garnering the nickname "Suicide bridge" due to the number of suicides and attempted suicides since its completion. To prevent further suicides, the city erected tall chain link fence railings along the sidewalks in 1997. In 2007, the fencing was topped off with a 0,91 m wide strip of polished metal to make it impossible to climb.

It's a Good Day to again pay our respects to Nepomuk, once at home in Prag. He paid a heavy price for not giving up his beliefs. The Slovakian stamp has appeared earlier, but it is actually only one of three sharing the same motif, 1993.

The stamp showing the griffon at the Charles Bridge was one in a set of six issued for the philatelic meeting in Prague (1978). The griffon lives on the oldest building of the University, the Karolinum, dating from the 14th century. Charles IV founded the university named after him in 1348 and it has ca. 50,000 students today.

Harvest collected on the margins of small sheets of Czech stamps. Charles Bridge and Bridge in Nitra[URL="http://www.pichome.ru/image/C1f][/url]
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Last stamp with bridge issued by Czechoslovakia - 28 August 1992 (On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia split into Czech Republic and Slovakia)
CHRUDIM CHURCH - COVERED BRIDGE

Hello Jose, I found some photos of the old church of St. Bartholemew in Chrudim which dates from the end of the 14th century; it seems to be a moated church. I don't know if the bridge is as old as the church. The town Chrudim is now in the Czech republic.

The same stamp, but released in 1971

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Czechoslovakia issued another beautiful picture of the Charles Bridge for the philatelic exhibition of 1978. Vincenc S. Morstadt (1802-1875) must have painted the bridge several times from different positions - one can even see the detail of the masonry. The log barriers on the upriver side protected the bridge from, for example ice floes and driftwood. A photograph from 1890 shows that they didn't save the bridge from damage during the flood that year.

The famous engraver Ladislav Jirka (1914-1986) did the work for this colorful stamp issued for the philatelic meeting of 1962. His work is most likely shown many times on the engraver's thread and there is even a special stamp honoring him personally. The red and white pole in the center is a navigation marker.

The desapeared Kivisild or Stone Bridge of Tartu (1784-1941), in Estonia.

In most overviews of Prague's bridges the rail bridge and the Palacky aren't included, but each got its own stamp for the meeting in 1978. Looking north toward the center of town in the photograph.




(Hello Cursus, Add some of those beautiful Spanish bridges! K.)

Hello Cursus, When I found an elderly, cut (not perforated), Estland-Eesti bridge stamp in Grandmother's album I had the darndest time finding out when it had been issued and what bridge it was and why it had all that netting on it. Now I know that it is one in a set of 6 semipostal stamps issued in 1941 by the Germans who occupied Estonia in 1941, pushing out the Russians. The Russians dynamited the bridge while retreating, and a few years later the Germans dynamited the rest of it while retreating from the Russians. Your stamp has a cancellation which looks like 23 IX 41 and that is only a day after the stamps became available and TARTU but not the German Dorpat. I still don't know anything about my cut one. The surcharge was for reconstruction after the Russians had left. The memory of this grand old drawbridge (financed in part by Catherine II) is still very alive in Tartu; perhaps it will someday be rebuilt. (see also page 5, maybe Postmaster knows something?)

Kris: according to my 2005 Estonian catalog (Eesti Postmargid Tervikasjad Katalog)there were 2 prints of the 1941 Tartu stone bridge stamp.

1.- September 22th 1941 on thick, white, hard paper with lilac grey underprint network, thin yellowish white gum. Number of 20+20k umperf. stamps: 15.000

2.- November 14th 1941 on greyish white paper, dull colours and unclear print, yellowish brown underprint network, thick brownish shiny gum. Number of 20+20k umperf. stamps (whole set): 1.564.000

My stamp is on a philatelic letter, circulated with the whole series, from Tartu to Tallinn. Departing on 29/IX/1941 and arriving on 30/IX/1941 (as stated with a pm on the back). It's, obviously, from the first print (640.784 perforated stamps).