Hundreds of people gathered in the auditorium of Portland’s Brownstone Intermediate School Thursday morning to celebrate the stamp of the 85-year-old Arrigoni Bridge spanning the Connecticut River.
The bridge is one of four chosen nationwide to be depicted on the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) new bridge stamp series.
The picture used for the stamp was taken by Moodus resident Joe Gowac in 2019, using a drone.
Initially, no event was planned to celebrate the honor, but various community organizations, including the Portland Historical Society and the Connecticut Cover Club, a stamp collecting group, helped organize the event, Portland First Selectman Ryan Curley said.
“I had spoken with the post office several times and they had told me repeatedly that stamps would not be available in Portland, this was not a big deal, we weren’t going to do anything and to please stop calling,” Curley said.
The unveiling ceremony was to be held in the Portland Senior Center, but was moved to Brownstone Intermediate School when the list of registrants exceeded the center’s capacity.
After an online search of bridges nationwide, the USPS art department chose the Arrigoni for its beauty, according to ceremony officials.
The bridge connects the city of Middletown and the town of Portland. The connection of the two municipalities is representative of the comradery felt between both communities, Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim said.
“It’s a reminder that we have so much more in common than what separates us and even though we are two distinct towns. We are two distinct communities. We have so much in common. We have so much we work together on. There’s so much more that we can do,” Florsheim said.
The Arrigoni stamp marks the first time a Connecticut image has been on a stamp in nearly a decade. In 2014 a picture of a poinsettia taken in Hartford was used for a $0.49 stamp.
Named after former State Senator Charles J. Arrigoni, the bridge was constructed in 1936 to replace the outdated swing bridge nearby.
