The Humber Bridge.

The "Europa" theme for the 1983 was "Works of Human Genius" and the 16p (SG 1215) value features the Humber Bridge, the longest suspension Bridge in th e UK.

The Humber Bridge was officially opened by the Queen in July 1981 and it li nks Hessle on the North bank of the River Humber with Barton-on-Humber on t he South bank. The Humber bridge was first mooted in the early 1950's and i n 1959 the Humber Bridge Act set up the Humber bridge Board who were to des ign, construct, operate and maintain the bridge. However, it was not until 1972 that construction work commenced.

The bridge has a design life of 120 years and is based on a design used for the Severn Bridge. The main span is 1,410 metres and there are two side sp ans. The north side span is 280 metres long and the south span has a length of 530 metres, making a total length of 2,220 metres. The towers of the br idge rise to 155.5 metres above the piers on which they rest. The bridge de ck is 28.5 metres in width and there is a clearance of 30 metres at high ti de.

During construction, a total of 480,000 tonnes of concrete were used along with some 27,500 tonnes of steel. The main cables are 0.68 metres in diamet er and contain 14, 948 wires each of 5 mm diameter. The total length of wir e is some 71,000 km.

The bridge was originally estimated to cost A328 million, but by 1981, whe n the bridge finally opened the cost had soared to A3151 million, mainly t hrough loan charges. As these continued to increase, the government agreed to refinancing of the bridge in 1998 and it is now anticipated that the con struction loans will be paid by 2032, some 50 years after the bridge opened . The bridge currently carries just over 6 million vehicles per annum

The stamp, designed by Michael Taylor, was printed on phosphorised paper by Harrisons and is available, with the others in the set, from Pennyred.