Tay Road Bridge, Dundee / Fife - Plastichrome postcard c.1960s

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Tay Road Bridge (Joins City of Dundee with Fife)
• Publisher:  Sanderson & Dixon, Ambleside (Plastichrome)
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

Please ask if you need any other information and I will do the best I can to answer.

------------------------------------------------

Postage & Packing:

UK (incl. IOM, CI & BFPO): 99p

Europe: £1.60

Rest of world (inc. USA etc): £2.75

No additional charges for more than one postcard. You can buy as many postcards from me as you like and you will just pay the fee above once. (If buying postcards with other things such as books, please contact or wait for invoice before paying).

Payment Methods:

UK - PayPal, Cheque (from UK bank) or postal order

Outside UK: PayPal ONLY (unless otherwise stated) please.   NO non-UK currency checks or money orders (sorry).

NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

I will give a full refund if you are not fully satisfied with the postcard.

----------------------------------------------

Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

*************

The Tay Road Bridge is a bridge across the Firth of Tay from Newport-on-Tay in Fife to Dundee in Scotland. At around 2,250 metres (1.4 mi), it is one of the longest road bridges in Europe, and slopes gradually downward towards Dundee. In 2002, a Tay FM competition to find a slogan for the bridge was abandoned after the slogan with the most votes - “It’s all downhill to Dundee” was deemed unsuitable. It carries the A92 road across the Firth and takes traffic directly into the centre of Dundee, just downstream of the Tay Rail Bridge.

As part of the modernisation projects of the 1950s, a road bridge across the Tay had been considered for several years. In August 1958 a traffic census and test bores were taken to locate the most suitable crossing for the bridge.

The bridge was designed by William Fairhurst and construction began in March 1963 with the infilling of West Graving Dock, King William Dock and Earl Grey docks in Dundee. The construction was undertaken by Duncan Logan Construction Ltd. Controversially, construction required the demolition of Dundee's Royal Arch where Queen Victoria had entered the city on a royal visit. Rubble from the Victoria arch was used as foundations for the on-ramp. Furthermore, Dundee councillors at the time insisted that the architects amend their drawings so that the Tay Bridge landed on the Dundee side immediately in front of the newly constructed Tay House council offices. The councillors hoped that the incoming public would be suitably impressed. However, traffic chaos was soon apparent. Dundee's new waterfront development is seeing the demolition of Tay House (which stood for less than 50 years) and a re-alignment of the Tay bridge ramps.

The bridge consists of 42 spans with a navigation channel located closer to the Fife side. During the construction of the bridge, 140,000 tons of concrete, 4,600 tons of mild steel and 8,150 tons of structural steel was used. The bridge has a gradient of 1:81 running from 9.75 m (32.0 ft) above sea-level in Dundee to 38.1 m (125.0 ft) above sea-level in Fife.

The bridge took 3½ years to build at a cost of approximately £6 million. Following the installation of the final 65 ton girder on 4 July 1966, the completed bridge was officially opened by the Queen Mother on 18 August 1966. A newsreel of this is available in the British Pathe web archive. For four days, many took advantage of the toll-free period to cross the bridge.

Viewing platforms were once a feature of the Bridge, however they were removed in the 1990s.

type=printed postcards

theme=topographical: british

sub-theme=scotland

county/ country=fife

number of items=single

period=1945 - present

postage condition=unposted