COLOMBIA

COLOMBIA.

Docks in Barranquilla Port.
First stamp in a set of 8, issued on 05.03.1956.
Face value: 5 Colombian centavos.
Printed by De La Rue & Co. Ltd., Basingstoke (England).
Printing: Recess.
Print: 3,000,000 copies.
Size: 35 x 30 mm.

Catalogs
- Leo Temprano No. 835.
- Michel No. 764.
- Scott No. 644.
- StampWorld No. 746.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 869.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 509.

Barranquilla is the capital of Atlántico Department. It is located on the western bank of the Magdalena River, 7.5 km (4.7 mi) from its mouth in the Caribbean Sea. In 1993 it was constitutionally organized in a special, industrial and port district. It is the main economic center of the Caribbean region of Colombia. Its population, in 2018, was 1,274,250 people. In 1849, Sabanilla Bay, in the Caribbean Sea, was converted into a commercial port and a customs office was installed in the current Castillo de Salgar. In 1893 the Puerto Colombia pier was built, which was at the time one of the longest in the world. The current port area of Barranquilla, on the banks of the Magdalena River, has a length of about 22 km (14 mi); Construction began in 1925 and it was officially inaugurated in December 1936. The docks that can be seen in the stamp were built in 1939, the year in which the activity of Puerto Colombia was abandoned.