There’s an incalculable number of postcards featuring London’s Tower Bridge - it may well be the capital’s most popular subject. But there are very few examples of this view of the bridge, looking at the roadway. It’s always a joy when a publisher of cards takes the risk of printing views that defy the prevailing visual cliché. Two more examples of alternate views of over-familiar subjects come from Bristol (Clifton Bridge) and Saltash, on the Cornish bank of the Tamar, where Brunel’s famous bridge has been relegated to the background in the same way that Hokusai treated Mount Fuji. The next group of cards are of footbridges in Yorkshire, Roubaix and the coast of the north of Ireland. Following them is a quartet of North American bridges that typically reflect the American preference for hammering together crudely formed rebarbative metal sections in the hope they may stand for thousands of years. Four images of swing-bridges follow - two from East Anglia and one each from Saigon and the Manchester Ship Canal. Then two curiosities from Lincoln and Linlithgow of bridges that reflectively resolve themselves into perfect circles. Our annual survey concludes with a trio of trestle type constructions - always easy on the eye but not always the most reliable formula. These examples are from Yorkshire (Hardcastle Crags - a bridge designed to be temporary and since dismantled), Crumlin in Wales (also dismantled) and Salta in Argentina.
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