100th Anniversary of the Opening of Bodie Creek Suspension Bridge

Bodie Creek Suspension Bridge Centenary

This is an entirely personal perspective on the building of a bridge one hundred years ago which I have never seen, on a distant island I have never visited. The bridge is the Bodie Creek Suspension Bridge near Goose Green in the Falkland Islands and my grandfather, Charles Peters, was the Chief Engineer responsible for building it. The information here comes mainly from family stories plus some information I have discovered elsewhere since.

Way out in the middle of nowhere, beyond a place called Goose Green there is a most unlikely looking suspension bridge crossing a creek. It is rusting away now. The timbers are rotten and the structure is so unsafe it has been closed to vehicles and pedestrians for years.

This Special stamp issue, commemorating the centenary of the opening of the bridge, features some of the photographs that my grandfather took at the time for his progress reports.

The Falkland Island Company (FIC) was actively involved in all aspects of life on the Falklands at that time, so naturally their sphere of influence included the sheep farms across the islands. The FIC decided to consolidate sheep farming at Goose Green. The sheep farmers at Walker Creek in Lafonia found it took five days to walk the sheep around the sea inlets to Goose Green. To shorten the journey, they needed a bridge to span 400 feet across the Bodie Creek.

Apart from Charles Peters as Chief Engineer, the team included the foreman, Mr E. S. Crawford, a mason, and Mr Evans, a carpenter working for the FIC. For the manpower and energy required to construct the bridge they relied on the physically fit and strong local farmhands such as Jock Pettersson.

There was no industrial base on the island. No ironworks or engineering factories, so the bridge had to be imported. They ordered the bridge from David Rowell & Co. in London. It cost £2,281.00 and was shipped to the Falkland Islands on the SS Ballena.

The foreman, Mr. E. S. Crawford, was a mason so he directed the construction of the footings for the two towers and the bases for the ramp on the Southern bank.

There were only two machines available for the team to use. One was a cement mixer, and the other was a stone breaker. As you can imagine, the stone breaker was incredibly noisy and generated clouds of stone dust. People could hear it all the way back in Goose Green when it was running.

The team of men who worked on the bridge were the local sheep farmers. They were the only workforce available, so everyone pitched in. A real team effort. There were no cranes, no earthmovers, no trucks; just convoys of men with wheelbarrows as they moved the rubble or brought down the concrete.

There was a hut that was used as an office. It contained a table and a couple of benches. The benches were boxes which could open out to make a bed where my grandfather slept sometimes.

The foundations for the base at both the northern end of the bridge had to be blasted out of solid rock using explosives then every stone had to be taken away in a wheelbarrow. With no cranes, how on earth could they lift the assembled 40-foot-tall towers into place? Charles found an abandoned schooner-rigged yacht and he adapted the twin masts to form an improvised lifting gear by means of ropes and pulleys. And it worked well, as can be seen on the 83p value.

Construction was started in October 1924 and the bridge was completed in July 1925 – less than a year’s work.

After the bridge had been built, work on the approach roads was completed by the end of October 1925, enabling the first sheep to be brought across the bridge in time for the new shearing season.

If you want to learn more about the bridge and people involved, please visit the website http://www.bodiecreekbridge.com

Text by Steve Peters

Technical Details

Photography Charles Peters, Courtesy of Steve Peters

Additional Photography £1.68 - Donald Betts, FDC - Russell Inman

Designer Bee Design

Printer Cartor Security Printing

Process Stochastic lithography

Stamp Size 38 x 30.6mm

Perforation 13 ¼ x 13 per 2cms

Sheet Layout 10

Release Date 31 October, 2025

Production Co-ordination Creative Direction (Worldwide) Ltd