The London Bridge

The London Bridge has been a iconic image of Lake Havasu City since its creation. In this article, learn more about the famous London Bridge.

In 1831, the London Bridge was completed by John Rennie and his son also named John Rennie Jr. This was John’s last project as an engineer. However, by 1962, the bridge saw an increase in traffic. This modern traffic caused the bridge to begin to sink into the River Thames. The London Bridge was truly falling down! At this time, it was put op for sale by the City of London.

Rover McCulloch, the founder of Lake Havasu City, was also the chairman of the McCulloch Oil Corporation and purchased the bridge for $2,460,000. He bought the bridge in order to bring more tourists to his retirement real estate company in Lake Havasu City.

Piece by piece, the bridge was shipped 10,000 miles to Long Beach, CA. It was then trucked over to Lake Havasu. On September 23, 1968, reconstruction began with the Lord Mayor of London laying the cornerstone. On October 10, 1971, the bridge was dedicated. The bridge was not built over the river. Rather, it was built on the east side of the lake. When the bridge was done, a large dredge was used to create the one mile long channel under it. This removed over 2 million cubic yards of rock and dirt. Finally, the water was diverted into the channel and created the current Channel and Thompson Bay.

A great way to see this bridge is by either walking over it or boating under it. The island to which the bridge connects to has many buildings with an English Theme; its almost like going back to London when you cross the bridge.

Sources:

1. "London Bridge (Lake Havasu City)." Wikipedia. Web. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_(Lake_Havasu_City)>. 

2. Edwards, Megan. "London Bridge: Alive and well in Arizona." Roadtrip America 2/25/07: n. pag. Web. 4 Jul 2010. <http://www.roadtripamerica.com/places/havasu.htm>.

3. Original London Bridge Photo was obtained from Wikipedia under the GNU Free Documentation License