Thursday, September 25, 2014

Opening of the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne 15.11.1978

Souvenir postal cover issued by Australia Post on 15 Nov 1978, to commemorate the official opening of the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne. Includes 20c "Little Grebe" stamp, a postal stamp incorporating official West Gate Bridge Authority logo and a stamp of an Australia Post mail van with the words the "First Official Mail Across West Gate".

The West Gate Bridge is a steel box girder cable-stayed bridge in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It spans the Yarra River, just north of its mouth into Port Phillip, and is a vital link between the inner city (CBD) and Melbourne's western suburbs; with the industrial suburbs in the west and with the city of Geelong, 80 kilometres (50 mi) to the south-west. It is one of the busiest road corridors in Australia.

The main river span is 336 metres (1,102 ft) in length, and the height above the water is 58 metres. The total length of the bridge is 2,582.6 metres (8,473.1 ft). It is the second longest in Australia behind the Houghton Highway and its twin the Ted Smout Memorial Bridge, and is twice as long as theSydney Harbour Bridge. It is one of the highest bridges in Australia, most notably trailing that of the more iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The bridge passes over Westgate Park, a large environmental and recreational reserve created during the bridge's construction. The bridge carries up to 200,000 vehicles per day.

Thank you Maria.

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