BahamaLure: Yes, that's black paint. On my 2A1, which appears quite original and lightly used, there are already big ugly flakes breaking away to expose bare metal. The "bridge" is the charger bridge which accepts stripper clips for quick loading. Yours pretty much resembles the original ones which first appeared on the No. I mkIII. I'll try to upload a couple of side shots of my 2A1 later today so you can see what a non-sporterized one looks like.

Ridolpho