Golden Gate Bridge Postcards

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay onto the Pacific Ocean. As part of both US Highway 101 and State Route 1, it connects the city of San Francisco on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula to Marin County.

Golden Gate Bridge Postcard 1

Construction began on 5 January 1933. The project cost over $26 million. The project was finished by April 1937, $1.3 million under budget. The Golden Gate Bridge had the longest suspension bridge span in the world when it was completed in 1937 and has become an internationally recognized symbol of San Francisco and California. Since its completion, the span length has been surpassed by eight other bridges. It still has the second longest suspension bridge main span in the United States, after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City.

Golden Gate Bridge Postcard 2(PH Wish from Janet Durfee)

The bridge has approximately 1,200,000 total rivets. Despite its red appearance, the color of the bridge is officially an orange vermilion called international orange. The color was selected by consulting architect Irving Morrow because it blends well with the natural surroundings yet enhances the bridge's visibility in fog.

The Golden Gate Bridge has a similar sister bridge in Lisbon, Portugal. The red-painted Ponte 25 de Abril (25th April Bridge) is 2,278 m (7,470 ft) spans 1,013 m (3,320 ft).

Design: Suspension, truss arch & truss causewaysLongest span: 4,200 feet (1,280 m)Total length: 8,981 feet (2,737 m)Width: 90 feet (27 m)Height: 746 feet (227 m)Vertical clearance: 14 feet (4.3 m) at toll gates, higher truck loads possibleClearance below: 220 feet (67 m) at mean higher high water

SOURCE:Golden Gate Bridge Wikipedia Entry

US Highway 65 Crossing Postcard

View from the Baptist Hill Lake Taneycomo, U.S. Highway No. 65 Crossing

"In the beautiful Ozarks, land of a million smiles"

At first I wasn't sure if the name of the bridge is actually US Highway 65 Crossing. But after trying different search strings, I found that it is actually called "Lake Taneycomo Bridge" and also found relevant information and images of the bridge. This postcard was also postmarked in November of 1948 from Missouri to Manila.

Lake Taneycomo Bridge Postcard

Information about Lake Taneycomo Bridge:

Lake Taneycomo Bridge is a five-span open-spandrel arch bridge over Lake Taneycomo (White River) on MO 76/Business US 65 at Branson located in Taney County, Missouri. The bridge was built in 1931 by Fred Luttjohann, replacing an earlier truss bridge. The builder is Fred Luttjohann of Topeka, Kansas.
Dimensions:
Length of largest span: 194.8 ft.
Total length: 1,086.7 ft.
Deck width: 20.0 ft.

I also found out that they are adding a new two-lane bridge right beside the old two-lane bridge. The bridge will remain in use to handle the the south bound traffic. The new bridge will be used for the north bound traffic.

SOURCES:Historic Bridges of the US: Lake Taneycomo Bridge

Old North Bridge, Concord, MA Postcard

Easier for me this time to gather information regarding the bridge because it is a famous one. The front of the card says:

OLD NORTH BRIDGE. Here took place about noon, April 19th, 1775, the principal engagement in Concord, the British being repulsed and retreating in great disorder. Across the bridge the statue of the "Concord Minute Man."

Old North Bridge Postcard

The North Bridge, often colloquially called the Old North Bridge, across the Concord River in Concord, Massachusetts is a historical site in the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the first battle day in the Revolutionary War. Here five full companies of Minutemen and five of non-Minuteman militia occupied this hill with groups of other men streaming in, totaling about 400 against the British light infantry companies from the 4th, 10th, and 43rd Regiments of Foot under Captain Laurie, a force totaling about 90-95 men.
The bridge whose timbers reverberated with the famous "shot heard 'round the world" was constructed in 1760; one of a series of bridges that occupied the site since the 1630's. (The first documented bridge was built ca. 1654 though it is widely held that a bridge was located at, or near, the present site shortly after 1635, the year of incorporation of the Town of Concord.) The bridge of 1760 was replaced in 1788 only to be dismantled in 1793 when the river crossing was moved upstream. From 1793 to 1874 no bridge existed at this historic site.
In 1874, construction began on a new bridge to be ready in time for the centennial celebrations of the following year. Floods destroyed this bridge in 1888. A new bridge was constructed in 1889 only to be destroyed once again by floods in 1908. In an effort to create a sturdier bridge, engineers and architects designed the next bridge in concrete using as their model the original drawings by Amos Doolittle prepared shortly after the battle in 1775. Nature once again proved more powerful and in 1955, damage from Hurricane Diane left the bridge beyond repair. The current bridge was built in 1956 by the State of Massachusetts, based on drawings of the original bridge, built in the 1760s.

At this site also stands Daniel Chester French's well-known Minute Man Statue of 1875. This famous statue by artist Daniel Chester French, among whose later works include the seated Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.,was dedicated on April 19, 1875 as part of the Centennial celebrations. The statue was cast in bronze from ten condemned cannon supplied by the United States Congress.

SOURCES:
Old North Bridge Wikipedia Entry
North Bridge Restoration Project

Capilano Suspension Bridge Postcard

The Capilano Suspension Bridge is a simple suspension bridge crossing the Capilano River in the District of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The current bridge is 136 metres long and 70 metres above the river.

Capilano Suspension Bridge Postcard

In 1888, George Grant Mackay, a Scottish civil engineer and land developer, arrived in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Mackay purchased 24 square kilometres of dense forest on either side of Capilano River and built a cabin on the very edge of the canyon wall. Assisted by two local natives and a team of horses, Mackay suspended a hemp rope and cedar plank bridge across the river. Natives called it the "laughing bridge" because of the noise it made when wind blew through the canyon. After his death, the hemp rope bridge was replaced by a wire cable bridge in 1903.
In 1910 Edward Mahon purchased the Capilano Suspension Bridge. Unsure of the bridge's strength, Mahon reinforced it with additional cables in 1914. In 1953 Rae Mitchell purchased the bridge property from Henri Aubeneau. Unsure of the 1914 cable strength, he completely rebuilt the bridge in 5 days in 1956, encasing the cables in 11.8 tonnes of concrete at either end.

SOURCE:
Capilano Suspension Bridge

Mainz Eisenbahnbrucke Postcard

I am now done with the map postcards in my collection. Next to be shown are my bridge postcards, mostly given as Postcard Heaven wishes.

This is my third German old bridge postcard. But I was luckier this time because I was able to find information about the bridge (German Wikipedia), and the current picture of the bridge. I'd prefer the old bridge. Too bad it was destroyed during WWII.

Mainz-Gustavsburger Eisenbahnbrücke Postcard

The Mainz South Bridge (also called Mainz-Gustavsburger Eisenbahnbrücke or Mainz-Gustav Local Railway Bridge) was built from 1860 - 1862, and combines part of the Rhine-Main railway and the main railway Mainz with Gustav's castle.

The original bridge had four major lens makers, including Pauli carrier (after the engineer Friedrich August von Pauli), followed by a long right-flood bridge with 31 other fields of views. Both bridge-heads was built with bridge towers that would defend the bridge in case of a war.
Basic Data
Location: Mainz-old town - Ginsheim-Gustavsburg
Use: Eisenbahnbrücke (Railway Bridge)
Construction: 1860 - 1862
Architect: Gottfried Heinrich Gerber
Construction: Pauli makers (including lens makers)
Destruction: 1945
Reconstruction: 1948-1949

Technical Data
Length: 1028 m
Width: 12.6 m
Height: 9 m
Building materials: Steel, stone
Spans: 106.6 - 105.6 - 105.6 - 106.6 m.
The South Bridge was destroyed during the Second World War. The bridge with two adjacent K-steel truss beams, each 12 m high and 424 metres long on common pillars, was rebuilt. Today there are only the western bridge towers.