Rainbow Stamp Club: Bridges of Poland

Hi !A bridge is one of the earliest humans' ideas to overrule nature. The first bridges used to be as simple as spans of wooden logs fallen across a stream or precipice. Later they were made of ropes, beams and stones, and finally as sophisticated structures of iron, concrete and steel. Bridges are important elements of architecture; they are designed for transportation and strategic purposes. In Today's Post some famous bridges of Poland of constructed in 19th, 20th & 21st Century depicted on the beautiful stamps issued on 29th August 2008. I have also an interesting clipping to share with u on Post Box sent by ditinguished philatelist Mr. Yogesh Kumar from Bareilly. I am highly thankful for the contribution of all the philatelists who are sending their response and contributing for this e-stamp club and sharing their views, articles, news and bringing philatelists together on this blogosphere. This e- Stamp Club is also a bridge between philatelists living in different corners of the world and enabling them to join hands with each other. In our regular series some very beautiful se-tenants on famous children's fables from the album of Mr. Shrikant Parikh. This is all for the day & Have a Great Time....!

Postage stamps and First Day Cover

The Polish Post has issued a series of 4 stamps with famous Polish bridges constructed in the 19th, 20th and 21st century. The oldest one is a railway bridge in Toruń, and the other bridges are: Poniatowski Bridge in Warsaw, a welded bridge near Łowicz and Siekierkowski Bridge - the newest one in Warsaw. Two First Day Covers depict parts of bridge structure.

Ernest Malinowski bridge in Toruń

An iron truss bridge for railway built between 1870-1873 to connect railway lines and serve as fortifications in a lower part of the Vistula river. It covers the so - called Stara Wisła and Kępa Bazarowa. Its 20 meter high towers were decorated with figures that were removed in 1920 as they reminded of the town's Prussian history. The towers themselves were disassembled in the 50's of the 20th century. By 1934 it was the only bridge in Toruń for trains, cars and pedestrians. The bridge was destroyed two times in the II World War - by the Polish troops (in September 1939) and then by the German troops (in January 1945). After the war, the bridge was rebuilt. In 1999 it was named by Ernest Malinowski - famous engineer who constructed a railway line in the Andes.

Poniatowski Bridge in Warsaw

Built between 1904-1914 as a Warsaw's third bridge on the Vistula river, designed by engineers M. Marszewski and W. Paszkowski and supervised by S. Szyller - author of the Warsaw University of Technology (Politechnika Warszawska) buildings. Its characteristic features are neo-Polish renaissance towers and pavilion on the viaduct over Powiśle. Poniatowski bridge was seriously damaged in 1915 by the retreating Russian troops and rebuilt in 1921-1926. It was on this bridge when in 1926, during the May Coup d'Etat, Józef Piłsudski met Stanisław Wojciechowski. The bridge was for the second time destroyed by the German troops during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Poniatowski bridge was rebuilt after the war (in 1946), however in a poorer shape, without decorative balustrades and some benches.

Bridge in Maurzyce

The first welded bridge in the world was designed by engineer Stefan Bryła in 1928. It was built on the Słudwia river (left Bzura's tributary). Welding significantly decreased the bridge's weight; earlier steel elements used to be joined by rivets or bolts. The bridge's weight is 55 tons.

Siekierkowski Bridge in Warsaw

Built between 2000-2002, however planned already during the interwar period. It is one of the elements of the 8-km long Trasa Siekierkowska yet to be finished. This seventh bridge on the Vistula river is a cable-stayed bridge supported by two pylons, with no pillars in the river current. Its characteristic orange cables are to warn and protect birds against any crashing.

Courtesy - Polish Post

Good Old PO Box doing well

NEW DELHI: Bride wanted. Tall, fair, slim, convent educated. Reply at PO box No 123, New Delhi.” A popular way of giving your address but still not giving it. The good old PO box continues to be a popular ‘address’, unhurt by the onslaught of the courier boom. A PO box or a personal locker-like facility at a post office is being used by many companies and people across the country, be it in the metros or the small towns, say officials. The department of posts enjoys monopoly in this regard and there is no competition, they say. “For a meagre sum of Rs 250, a person can book a PO box for a year,” says an official of the New Delhi GPO, popularly known as the ‘gole dak khana’. “The box account can be renewed after a year if the person so wishes, at the discretion of the post office,” he adds. “A PO box is very much secure as everything belonging to the person comes to the specified location. And only an authorised person can take out his things,” says Aparna Mohile, a former member of the postal services board. “These boxes are also helpful as sometimes postmen can play pranks and not deliver letters due to some personal grudge,” Ms Mohile says. However, the concerned post office is not responsible for any loss in documents arising out of the documents sent to a wrong address or lost in transit before reaching the PO box. This means the users of the PO box facility are availing the service at their own risk.

To prevent misuse, the facility is made available after scrutiny. A person cannot open a PO box just like that. “Whoever wants to open a box should furnish his full residential or office address to the post office. Only after a proper police verification of the address, the post office hands over the keys to the box,” the officials say. This is to ensure total genuineness of the applicant and to ensure that his motive for opening a box account is true, they say. “Other than police verification, even the post office PR Staff, if there are any, sometimes verify the addresses. So there is definitely no chance of misuse,” Ms Mohile says. PO box numbers have become a rage for contests on television, stay-at-home-earn-thousands jobs and even for banks. “PO boxes are very handy for competitions on television,” she said. Moreover, private sector banks in India are offering their services through PO box for NRI customers in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore and UAE. Now, customers no longer have to incur expensive courier charges to send their documents, they can simply post them at a local PO box in their respective countries. PO box addresses are still a rage in African nations including Namibia and Jordan, where there is no ‘postman’ and consequently no home delivery. Hence, a person has no other choice than rent a PO box. This has been the only traditional way to receive mail there.

Economic Times - 8 July 2008

From Se-tenant Album of Shrikant Parikh

Theme - Children

Famous Children's stories by Vishnu Sharma from Panchtantra