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The London Bridge

The authentic London Bridge sits in Lake Havasu City, Arizona spanning the Bridgewater Channel, connecting the Island to the mainland, and sitting amidst the 45-mile long Lake Havasu. It has been there since the early 1970’s, after a series of circumstances that required the City of London to put the “heap of stones” up for sale. The London Bridge really was falling down—or rather—sinking into the River Thames, and it had to be demolished and removed to make way for a more modern structure to accommodate the burgeoning traffic in the city.

The River Thames is a tidal river, which has caused problems for all the London Bridge’s of its time. The London Bridge that sits in Lake Havasu City was built by Englishman John Rennie in 1825, and it withstood the strong tidal current for 138 years. Rennie’s bridge had replaced a 600-year old, 19-arch structure built by Peter de Colechurch, so the London Bridge’s have a history that can be traced back close to 2,000 years.

When the Common Council of the Corporation of London voted to demolish the London Bridge—it took the London Bridge Act of 1967 to give the City Corporation parliamentary powers to demolish it—one council member convinced them to put the bridge up for sale. Ivan Luckin (knighted at a later date) suggested they put the bridge up for auction and use its history as the marketing feature—it was the famous London Bridge.

Despite criticism from the skeptics, a press conference was held in Los Angeles, where representatives from around the world had an opportunity to bid on this piece of English history. Robert P. McCulloch, Sr., owner and inventor of chainsaws and small engines, sent his master planner, C.V. Wood to the conference to place a bid. McCulloch wanted the bridge for Lake Havasu City as a tourist attraction and to use it to resolve a water flow problem that had formed around the peninsula in Thompson Bay. He needed to dredge a channel, which would create an Island out of Pittsburg Point, which meant he needed a bridge.

McCulloch instructed Wood to bid $2,460,000 for the London Bridge. That was $1.2 million for the bridge; $1.2 million for profit, and $1,000 for each year of his life. Although it wasn’t the highest bid received, the Bridge Estate House Committee (the endowment fund that owned the bridge) awarded McCulloch the bid. The London Bridge was numbered piece by piece like a puzzle, then dismantled block by block, and shipped to Long Island Calif. where it was trucked to Lake Havasu City. The bridge was reassembled on dry land where mounds of dirt were dredged underneath it, allowing the water to flow in August 1971.

The London Bridge was dedicated on October 10, 1971 in front of 100,000 people including British dignitaries. It is 58-feet shorter than John Rennie’s original, and it is hollow, to ensure it will never sink or fall into any river again.
It went into the Guinness Book of World Records as the Largest Antique Ever Sold.