After the Korean War for well over a decade the economic development of South Korea was at a stand still. The country was considered an economic “basket case”. However, during Park Chung-hee’s reign the country began to grow rapidly. One visible effect were the many newly constructed roads and bridges, which featured a lot on stamps.
An example is one of the stamps from the 1973 tourism series showing Namhae Bridge. Opened on 22 June 1973 this was Korea’s first suspension bridge. Namhae Island was connected to the mainland and the bridge became a tourist attraction.
In 1975 the Namhae Pavilion was opened. Many people took their picture, even wedding photos, in front of the bridge and the bridge was the ending shot of Lee Man-hee’s 1975 film “The Road to Sampo”. This film is considered a Korean classic, which is why the film was shown on the 2009 Korean Film Series. Oddly enough the film stills are shown in b/w, even though the film was shot in colour!
The film is available with subtitles on Youtube.
Here are some photos from the 1970s era:
For many other 1970s photos of the bridge visit the Namhae Bridge Archive website.
